Mobile radio communication devices and methods for controlling a mobile radio communication device

ABSTRACT

In an embodiment, a mobile radio communication device is provided. The mobile radio communication device may include a receiver configured to receive radio pilot information via a predefined physical radio channel according to a radio communication technology family, wherein the radio pilot information includes availability information about the availability of at least one radio communication technology of at least one other radio communication technology family. The mobile radio communication device may further include a radio communication protocol controller configured to provide at least one radio communication protocol of the at least one radio communication technology of the at least one other radio communication technology family based on the received pilot information.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments relate generally to mobile radio communication devices andmethods for controlling a mobile radio communication device.

BACKGROUND

Cellular communication systems based on Cognitive Radio and SoftwareDefined Radio paradigms are typically exploiting a standard wirelessradio infrastructure as well as the presence of a Cognitive PilotChannel (CPC) which may be sent on a specific reserved channel.

In this scenario, the Cognitive Pilot Channel (as it is under discussionwithin the ETSI RRS (European Telecommunications Standards InstituteReconfigurable Radio Systems) standardization group, for example), isbroadcasting context information on a dedicated physical channel thathelps the various user devices to know which communication standards areavailable (without requiring the handsets to scan for allpossibilities). Typically, the user will be informed about the presenceof cellular mobile radio communication systems (also referred to asCellular Wide Area radio communication systems), metropolitan areamobile radio communication systems (also referred to as MetropolitanArea System radio communication systems) and/or short range mobile radiocommunication systems (also referred to as Short Range radiocommunication systems) and based on the context, the user device(assumed to be an SDR (Software Defined Radio) device that isreconfigurable) may choose a reconfiguration of its device.

A second type of a Cognitive Pilot Channel is the so-called VirtualCognitive Pilot Channel (V-CPC). The V-CPC is transmitted to users viadeployed Access Technologies, such as Cellular Wide Area, MetropolitanArea and/or Short Range mobile radio communication systems. In theV-CPC, no additional infrastructure needs to be deployed—however, UEs(User Equipments) need to have a first communication connection runningbefore they can access the context information contained in the V-CPC.

Conventionally, an SDR handset device contains a reconfigurable SDR core(typically, a multitude of SIMD (Single-Instruction-Multiple-Data)processor cores assisted by accelerators, such as Maximum-Likelihooddecoders, filters, etc.). In some conventional implementations, areconfigurable transceiver is present.

In such an architecture, a handset device is usually not exploiting a(potentially available) Cognitive Pilot Channel. Rather, a handsetdevice usually scans all available frequency bands and checks for thepresence of all possible system configurations. In a standard scenarioit is assumed that frequency allocations for the various radiocommunication systems are fixed. Still, the scanning of allpossibilities typically takes a considerable amount of time and consumeslarge amounts of battery power.

In the future, it is expected that frequency allocations are no longerfixed for distinct radio communication systems and the number ofpossibilities to be considered during the scanning processing increasesconsiderably, since the number of degrees of freedom rises. In such acontext, the scanning of all possible permutations is becoming quasiimpossible.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, like reference characters generally refer to the sameparts throughout the different views. The drawings are not necessarilyto scale, emphasis instead generally being placed upon illustrating theprinciples of various embodiments. In the following description, variousembodiments are described with reference to the following drawings, inwhich:

FIG. 1 shows a radio communication system in accordance with anembodiment;

FIG. 2 shows a portion of a radio communication system in accordancewith an embodiment;

FIG. 3 shows a radio communication device in accordance with anembodiment;

FIG. 4 shows a radio communication device in accordance with anotherembodiment;

FIG. 5 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for controlling amobile radio communication device in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 6 shows a radio communication device in accordance with yet anotherembodiment;

FIG. 7 shows a radio communication device in accordance with yet anotherembodiment;

FIG. 8 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for controlling amobile radio communication device in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 9 shows a radio communication device in accordance with yet anotherembodiment;

FIG. 10 shows a radio communication device in accordance with yetanother embodiment; and

FIG. 11 shows a flow diagram illustrating a method for controlling amobile radio communication device in accordance with an embodiment.

DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawingsthat show, by way of illustration, specific details and embodiments inwhich the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described insufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice theinvention. Other embodiments may be utilized and structural, logical,and electrical changes may be made without departing from the scope ofthe invention. The various embodiments are not necessarily mutuallyexclusive, as some embodiments can be combined with one or more otherembodiments to form new embodiments.

In an embodiment, a “circuit” may be understood as any kind of a logicimplementing entity, which may be hardware, software, firmware, or anycombination thereof. Thus, in an embodiment, a “circuit” may be ahard-wired logic circuit or a programmable logic circuit such as aprogrammable processor, e.g. a microprocessor (e.g. a ComplexInstruction Set Computer (CISC) processor or a Reduced Instruction SetComputer (RISC) processor). A “circuit” may also be software beingimplemented or executed by a processor, e.g. any kind of computerprogram, e.g. a computer program using a virtual machine code such ase.g. Java. Any other kind of implementation of the respective functionswhich will be described in more detail below may also be understood as a“circuit” in accordance with an alternative embodiment.

The terms “coupling” or “connection” are intended to include a direct“coupling” or direct “connection” as well as an indirect “coupling” orindirect “connection”, respectively.

The term “protocol” is intended to include any piece of software, thatis provided to implement part of any layer of the communicationdefinition. “Protocol” may include the functionality of one or more ofthe following layers; physical layer (layer 1), data link layer (layer2), network layer (layer 3), or any other sub-layer of the mentionedlayers or any upper layer.

FIG. 1 shows a radio communication system 100 in accordance with anembodiment. Illustratively, FIG. 1 shows a heterogeneous Wireless RadioEnvironment including a Cognitive Pilot Channel.

In various embodiments, cellular radio communication systems based onCognitive Radio and Software Defined Radio paradigms, are exploiting astandard wireless radio infrastructure as well as the presence of aCognitive Pilot Channel (CPC) which may be sent on a specific reservedchannel. This is illustrated in FIG. 1, which shows a coverage region102, in which one or more Cognitive Pilot Channel (CPC) signals existand can be received by a radio communication terminal device (not shown)which is located within this coverage region 102. Although the coverageregion 102 is shown as a circular region in FIG. 1, it should be notedthat the coverage region 102 may have an arbitrary shape and was onlyshown as circular for reasons of simplicity.

In various embodiments, it is assumed that a plurality of differentradio communication technologies of the a plurality of different radiocommunication technology families are provided which provide radiocommunication services within the coverage region 102. It is to be notedthat in alternative embodiments, some of the radio communicationtechnologies may be provided outside the coverage region 102. By way ofexample, as shown in FIG. 1, different radio communication technologiesof three different radio communication technology families are provided.

Examples of various radio communication technology families are groupsof one or more radio communication technologies which may be groupedaccording to one or more respective radio characteristics such as e.g.the range of the radio services provided by the respective one or moreradio communication technologies or the way the radio signals areencoded and/or transmitted (e.g. via the air interface).

By way of example, radio communication technology families may be:

-   -   a Short Range radio communication technology family (which may        include e.g. a Bluetooth radio communication technology, an        Ultra Wide Band (UWB) radio communication technology, and/or a        Wireless Local Area Network radio communication technology (e.g.        according to an IEEE 802.11 (e.g. IEEE 802.11n) radio        communication standard)), IrDA (Infrared Data Association),        Z-Wave and ZigBee, HiperLAN/2 ((HIgh PErformance Radio LAN; an        alternative ATM-like 5 GHz standardized technology), IEEE        802.11a (5 GHz), IEEE 802.11g (2.4 GHz), IEEE 802.11n, IEEE        802.11VHT (VHT=Very High Throughput),    -   a Metropolitan Area System radio communication technology family        (which may include e.g. a Worldwide Interoperability for        Microwave Access (WiMax) (e.g. according to an IEEE 802.16 radio        communication standard, e.g. WiMax fixed or WiMax mobile),        WiPro, HiperMAN (High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area        Network) and/or IEEE 802.16m Advanced Air Interface,    -   a Cellular Wide Area radio communication technology family        (which may include e.g. a Global System for Mobile        Communications (GSM) radio communication technology, a General        Packet Radio Service (GPRS) radio communication technology, an        Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) radio communication        technology, and/or a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)        radio communication technology (e.g. UMTS (Universal Mobile        Telecommunications System), FOMA (Freedom of Multimedia Access),        3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution), 3GPP LTE Advanced (Long Term        Evolution Advanced)), CDMA2000 (Code division multiple access        2000), CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data), Mobitex, 3G (Third        Generation), CSD (Circuit Switched Data), HSCSD (High-Speed        Circuit-Switched Data), UMTS (3G) (Universal Mobile        Telecommunications System (Third Generation)), W-CDMA (UMTS)        (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (Universal Mobile        Telecommunications System)), HSPA (High Speed Packet Access),        HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), HSUPA (High-Speed        Uplink Packet Access), HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access Plus),        UMTS-TDD (Universal Mobile Telecommunications        System-Time-Division Duplex), TD-CDMA (Time Division-Code        Division Multiple Access), TD-CDMA (Time Division-Synchronous        Code Division Multiple Access), 3GPP Rel. 8 (Pre-4G) (3rd        Generation Partnership Project Release 8 (Pre-4th Generation)),        UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access), E-UTRA (Evolved UMTS        Terrestrial Radio Access), LTE Advanced (4G) (Long Term        Evolution Advanced (4th Generation)), cdmaOne (2G), CDMA2000        (3G) (Code division multiple access 2000 (Third generation)),        EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only), AMPS        (1G) (Advanced Mobile Phone System (1st Generation)), TACS/ETACS        (Total Access Communication System/Extended Total Access        Communication System), D-AMPS (2G) (Digital AMPS (2nd        Generation)), PTT (Push-to-talk), MTS (Mobile Telephone System),        IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone System), AMTS (Advanced Mobile        Telephone System), OLT (Norwegian for Offentlig Landmobil        Telefoni, Public Land Mobile Telephony), MTD (Swedish        abbreviation for Mobiltelefonisystem D, or Mobile telephony        system D), Autotel/PALM (Public Automated Land Mobile), ARP        (Finnish for Autoradiopuhelin, “car radio phone”), NMT (Nordic        Mobile Telephony), Hicap (High capacity version of NTT (Nippon        Telegraph and Telephone)), CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data),        Mobitex, DataTAC, iDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network),        PDC (Personal Digital Cellular), CSD (Circuit Switched Data),        PHS (Personal Handy-phone System), WiDEN (Wideband Integrated        Digital Enhanced Network), iBurst, Unlicensed Mobile Access        (UMA, also referred to as also referred to as 3GPP Generic        Access Network, or GAN standard)).

The Short Range radio communication technology family may be dividedinto the following Short Range radio communication technologysub-families:

-   -   a personal area networks (Wireless PANs) radio communication        sub-family, which may include e.g. IrDA (Infrared Data        Association), Bluetooth, UWB, Z-Wave and ZigBee; and    -   a wireless local area networks (W-LANs) radio communication        sub-family, which may include e.g. HiperLAN/2 (HIgh PErformance        Radio LAN; an alternative ATM-like 5 GHz standardized        technology), IEEE 802.11a (5 GHz), IEEE 802.11g (2.4 GHz), IEEE        802.11n, IEEE 802.1 VHT (VHT=Very High Throughput).

The Metropolitan Area System radio communication technology family maybe divided into the following Metropolitan Area System radiocommunication technology sub-families:

-   -   a Wireless campus area networks (W-CANs) radio communication        sub-family, which may be considered one form of a metropolitan        area network, specific to an academic setting, and which may        include e.g. WiMAX, WiPro, HiperMAN (High Performance Radio        Metropolitan Area Network), or IEEE 802.16m Advanced Air        Interface; and    -   a Wireless metropolitan area networks (W-MANs) radio        communication sub-family, which may be limited to a room,        building, campus or specific metropolitan area (e.g., a city)        respectively, and which may include e.g. WiMAX, WiPro, HiperMAN        (High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network), or IEEE        802.16m Advanced Air Interface.

The Cellular Wide Area radio communication technology family may also beconsidered as a Wireless Wide Area Network (Wireless WAN) radiocommunication technology family, which may include e.g. (computer)networks that cover a broad area (i.e., any network whose communicationslinks cross metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries) and mayinclude e.g. GPRS, CDMA2000 (Code division multiple access 2000), GSM,CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data), Mobitex, 3G (Third Generation), CSD(Circuit Switched Data), HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data), UMTS(3G) (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (Third Generation)),W-CDMA (UMTS) (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (Universal MobileTelecommunications System)), HSPA (High Speed Packet Access), HSDPA(High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink PacketAccess), HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access Plus), UMTS-TDD (UniversalMobile Telecommunications System-Time-Division Duplex), TD-CDMA (TimeDivision-Code Division Multiple Access), TD-CDMA (TimeDivision-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), FOMA (Freedom ofMultimedia Access), 3GPP Rel. 8 (Pre-4G) (3rd Generation PartnershipProject Release 8 (Pre-4th Generation)), UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial RadioAccess), E-UTRA (Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access), LTE Advanced(4G) (Long Term Evolution Advanced (4th Generation)), cdmaOne (2G),CDMA2000 (3G) (Code division multiple access 2000(Third generation)),EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only), AMPS (1G)(Advanced Mobile Phone System (1st Generation)), TACS/ETACS (TotalAccess Communication System/Extended Total Access Communication System),D-AMPS (2G) (Digital AMPS (2nd Generation)), PTT (Push-to-talk), MTS(Mobile Telephone System), IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone System), AMTS(Advanced Mobile Telephone System), OLT (Norwegian for OffentligLandmobil Telefoni, Public Land Mobile Telephony), MTD (Swedishabbreviation for Mobiltelefonisystem D, or Mobile telephony system D),Autotel/PALM (Public Automated Land Mobile), ARP (Finnish forAutoradiopuhelin, “car radio phone”), NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony),Hicap (High capacity version of NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone)),CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data), Mobitex, DataTAC, iDEN (IntegratedDigital Enhanced Network), PDC (Personal Digital Cellular), CSD (CircuitSwitched Data), PHS (Personal Handy-phone System), WiDEN (WidebandIntegrated Digital Enhanced Network), iBurst, Unlicensed Mobile Access(UMA, also referred to as 3GPP Generic Access Network, or GAN standard).

Furthermore, in various embodiments, examples of different radiocommunication technology families may be:

-   -   at least one radio communication technology family which        includes a radio communication technology in which the access to        radio resources is provided in a random manner (which may        include e.g. a Bluetooth radio communication technology, IrDA        (Infrared Data Association) radio communication technology,        Z-Wave radio communication technology, ZigBee radio        communication technology, an Ultra Wide Band (UWB) radio        communication technology, and/or a Wireless Local Area Network        radio communication technology (e.g. according to an IEEE 802.11        radio communication standard, a HiperLAN/2 (HIgh PErformance        Radio LAN; an alternative ATM-like 5 GHz standardized        technology) radio communication standard, an IEEE 802.11a (5        GHz) radio communication standard, an IEEE 802.11g (2.4 GHz)        radio communication standard, an IEEE 802.11n radio        communication standard, an IEEE 802.11VHT (VHT=Very High        Throughput) radio communication standard); and/or    -   at least one radio communication technology family which        includes a radio communication technology in which the access to        radio resources is provided in a centrally controlled manner        (which may include e.g. a Worldwide Interoperability for        Microwave Access (WiMax) (e.g. according to an IEEE 802.16 radio        communication standard, e.g. WiMax fixed or WiMax mobile),        and/or WiPro, HiperMAN (High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area        Network), IEEE 802.16m Advanced Air Interface, and/or a Global        System for Mobile Communications (GSM) radio communication        technology, a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) radio        communication technology, an Enhanced Data Rates for GSM        Evolution (EDGE) radio communication technology, and/or a Third        Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) radio communication        technology (e.g. UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications        System), FOMA (Freedom of Multimedia Access), 3GPP LTE (Long        Term Evolution), 3GPP LTE Advanced (Long Term Evolution        Advanced))), CDMA2000 (Code division multiple access 2000), CDPD        (Cellular Digital Packet Data), Mobitex, 3G (Third Generation),        CSD (Circuit Switched Data), HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit-Switched        Data), UMTS (3G) (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System        (Third Generation)), W-CDMA (UMTS) (Wideband Code Division        Multiple Access (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System)),        HSPA (High Speed Packet Access), HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink        Packet Access), HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access), HSPA+        (High Speed Packet Access Plus), UMTS-TDD (Universal Mobile        Telecommunications System-Time-Division Duplex), TD-CDMA (Time        Division-Code Division Multiple Access), TD-CDMA (Time        Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), FOMA        (Freedom of Multimedia Access), 3GPP Rel. 8 (Pre-4G) (3rd        Generation Partnership Project Release 8 (Pre-4th Generation)),        UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access), E-UTRA (Evolved UMTS        Terrestrial Radio Access), LTE Advanced (4G) (Long Term        Evolution Advanced (4th Generation)), cdmaOne (2G), CDMA2000        (3G) (Code division multiple access 2000 (Third generation)),        EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only), AMPS        (1G) (Advanced Mobile Phone System (1st Generation)), TACS/ETACS        (Total Access Communication System/Extended Total Access        Communication System), D-AMPS (2G) (Digital AMPS (2nd        Generation)), PTT (Push-to-talk), MTS (Mobile Telephone System),        IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone System), AMTS (Advanced Mobile        Telephone System), OLT (Norwegian for Offentlig Landmobil        Telefoni, Public Land Mobile Telephony), MTD (Swedish        abbreviation for Mobiltelefonisystem D, or Mobile telephony        system D), Autotel/PALM (Public Automated Land Mobile), ARP        (Finnish for Autoradiopuhelin, “car radio phone”), NMT (Nordic        Mobile Telephony), Hicap (High capacity version of NTT (Nippon        Telegraph and Telephone)), CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data),        Mobitex, DataTAC, iDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network),        PDC (Personal Digital Cellular), CSD (Circuit Switched Data),        PHS (Personal Handy-phone System), WiDEN (Wideband Integrated        Digital Enhanced Network), iBurst, Unlicensed Mobile Access        (UMA, also referred to as 3GPP Generic Access Network, or GAN        standard).

As shown in FIG. 1, a radio communication technology of a first radiocommunication technology family (e.g. of a Cellular Wide Area radiocommunication technology family), e.g. UMTS is provided within thecoverage region 102 by means of a plurality of UMTS base stations (alsoreferred to as NodeBs in the following) 104, wherein each base station104 spans a UMTS mobile radio cell 106, in which radio signals may bereceived transmitted from the respective UMTS base station 104.Furthermore, a radio communication technology of a second radiocommunication technology family (e.g. of a Metropolitan Area Systemradio communication technology family), e.g. IEEE 802.16e (e.g. WiMax)or IEEE 802.16m Advanced Air Interface is provided within the coverageregion 102 by means of a plurality of WiMax base stations 108, whereineach WiMax base station 108 spans a WiMax mobile radio cell 110, inwhich radio signals may be received transmitted from the respectiveWiMax base station 108. Moreover, a radio communication technology of athird radio communication technology family (e.g. of a Short Range radiocommunication technology family), e.g. WLAN is provided within thecoverage region 102 by means of a plurality of WLAN access points 112,wherein each WLAN access point 112 spans a WLAN mobile radio cell 114,in which radio signals may be received transmitted from the respectiveWLAN access point 112.

In various embodiments, one or more mobile radio communication terminaldevices (not shown in FIG. 1) may be located within the coverage region102 and may receive the cognitive pilot channel signal, which in thisexample may include the information about which radio communicationtechnology/technologies of which radio communication technologyfamily/families is/are currently available, as will be described in moredetail below.

It is to be noted that in various embodiments, a plurality of differentradio communication technologies of the same radio communicationtechnology family may be provided in the coverage region 102.

Furthermore, the various available radio communication technologies (ofthe same or of different radio communication technology families) maysimultaneously be provided, in other words, the covering regions of aplurality radio communication technologies may overlap within thecoverage region 102, which means that a plurality of different radiocommunication technologies may be available for a mobile radiocommunication terminal device at the same time so that the mobile radiocommunication terminal device may select one or more of the availableradio communication technologies to be actually used for transmittingand receiving e.g. useful data.

FIG. 2 shows a portion 200 of a radio communication system in accordancewith an embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 2, and in accordance with the definition of a CPC or aVirtual CPC (V-CPC) which has been provided within the IEEE SCC 41/IEEEP1900.4 Standardization group, a “Radio Enabler (RE) of ReconfigurationManagement” may be provided in order to distribute context informationto UEs, as will be described in more detail below. As shown in FIG. 2, aNetwork Reconfiguration Manager (NRM) device 202 is provided as anentity on the network side, e.g. as an entity within the Core Network.The Network Reconfiguration Manager (NRM) device 202 is coupled to aplurality of different radio communication technologies of various radiocommunication technology families via a network structure 204. By way ofexample, the network structure 204 may be coupled to a first accesspoint 206 according to an IEEE 802.11n radio communication standard asan example of a radio communication technology of a Short Range radiocommunication technology family and to a second access point 208according to an IEEE 802.11n radio communication standard. Furthermore,the network structure 204 may be coupled to a WiMax access point 210 asan example of a radio communication technology of a Metropolitan AreaSystem radio communication technology family. Moreover, the networkstructure 204 may be coupled to a first UMTS NodeB 212 as an example ofa radio communication technology of a Cellular Wide Area radiocommunication technology family and to a second UMTS NodeB 214, whichmay be additionally or alternatively configured to transmit, e.g.broadcast, a CPC signal or a V-CPC signal (in FIG. 2 symbolized by meansof a double arrow 216). In an alternative embodiment, the second UMTSNodeB 214 may be replaced by any other base station device configured totransmit, e.g. broadcast, a CPC signal or a V-CPC signal. In general, anarbitrary number of access points or base stations of different radiocommunication technologies of various radio communication technologyfamilies may be provided in alternative embodiments.

In an embodiment, it is assumed that a plurality of radio communicationterminal devices 218, 220 are provided which are configured to receiveand decode a CPC signal or a V-CPC signal, as will be described in moredetail below. Furthermore, it is assumed that the radio communicationterminal devices 218, 220 are located in a coverage region 222 so thatthey can receive the transmitted CPC signal or V-CPC signal as shown inFIG. 2. In this example, it is further assumed that the radiocommunication terminal devices 218, 220 are located in a coverage regionof the WiMax access point 210 so that they can receive the WiMax signalstransmitted by the WiMax access point 210.

As will be described in more detail below, in various embodiments, thedescribed architecture may be enriched by integrating a Cognitive PilotChannel reception module and a corresponding logic that exploits theinherent information (provided in the transmitted CPC signal or V-CPCsignal) in the radio communication terminal devices 218, 220.

As will be described in more detail below, the radio communicationterminal devices 218, 220 each may include a terminal reconfigurationmanager (TRM) circuit 224, 226, which are components of the so-calledRadio Enabler of Reconfiguration Management in accordance with IEEE SCC41/IEEE P1900.4. The TRM takes the context information and the policyinformation provided by the CPC and takes reconfiguration decisions onits own exploiting the knowledge from the received context information(plus additional sensing results if available) subject to the policies(which are typically limiting the available choices).

In various embodiments, the Cognitive Pilot Channel (as it is underdiscussion within the ETSI RRS standardization group, for example), isbroadcasting context information on a dedicated physical channel thathelps the various user devices (e.g. the radio communication terminaldevices 218,220) to know which radio communication standards areavailable (without requiring the handsets (e.g. the radio communicationterminal devices 218,220) to scan for all possibilities) and to choose aconfiguration of the radio communication terminal devices that fits bestthe user's needs. Typically, the user (and e.g. the respective radiocommunication terminal device) will be informed about the presence ofcellular mobile radio communication systems (also referred to asCellular Wide Area radio communication systems), metropolitan areamobile radio communication systems (also referred to as MetropolitanArea System radio communication systems) and/or short range mobile radiocommunication systems (also referred to as Short Range radiocommunication systems) and based on the context the user device (assumedto be an SDR (Software Defined Radio) device that is reconfigurable) maychoose a reconfiguration of its device. The choice may depend onconstraints that are imposed by certain policies, e.g. policies of theservice providers, policies of the user terminal or policies of userpreferences.

A second type of a Cognitive Pilot Channel which may be provided invarious embodiments is the so-called Virtual Cognitive Pilot Channel(V-CPC). The V-CPC is transmitted to users via deployed Radio AccessTechnologies, such as Cellular Wide Area, Metropolitan Area and/or ShortRange mobile radio communication systems. In the V-CPC, no additionalinfrastructure needs to be deployed—however, UEs (User Equipments) needto have a first communication connection running before they can accessthe context information contained in the V-CPC.

Various embodiments deal with the question on how to do the integrationof CPC/V-CPC related building blocks into an SDR handset implementation.

FIG. 3 shows a mobile radio communication device 300 (e.g. animplementation of the radio communication terminal devices 218, 220) inaccordance with an embodiment.

In various embodiments, the mobile radio communication device 300 mayinclude a receiver 302 configured to receive radio pilot information viaa predefined physical radio channel according to a radio communicationtechnology family, wherein the radio pilot information may includeavailability information about the availability of at least one radiocommunication technology of at least one other radio communicationtechnology family. The mobile radio communication device 300 may furtherinclude a radio communication protocol controller 304 configured toprovide at least one radio communication protocol of the at least oneradio communication technology of the at least one other radiocommunication technology family based on the received pilot information.The receiver 302 and the radio communication protocol controller 304 maybe coupled with each other, e.g. via an electrical connection 306 suchas e.g. a cable or a computer bus or via any other suitable electricalconnection to exchange electrical signals.

In an implementation of this embodiment, the radio communicationprotocol controller 304 may include or be formed by a programmablecontroller, e.g. a microprocessor (e.g. a Complex Instruction SetComputer (CISC) microprocessor or a Reduced Instruction Set Computer(RISC) microprocessor).

FIG. 4 shows a radio communication device 400 in accordance with anotherembodiment. In this embodiment, the radio communication device 400 ofFIG. 4 may include, in addition to the radio communication device 300 ofFIG. 3, a decoder 402 configured to decode the received pilotinformation (e.g. received via the receiver 302). The decoder 402 mayinclude at least one radio baseband circuit 404 configured to decode thereceived pilot information. The decoder 402 may be implemented on thesame chip (e.g. in the same processor, e.g. in the same microprocessor)as the radio communication protocol controller 304, or on a separatechip. The at least one radio baseband circuit 404 may include at leastone radio baseband circuit being configured to provide one or more ofthe following baseband functions: demodulation of the received physicalchannel signal and/or extraction of the pilot information from thereceived physical channel signal.

In various embodiments, the predefined physical channel may be aCognitive Pilot Channel. In alternative embodiments, the predefinedphysical channel may be a non-cognitive physical channel, wherein thepilot information may be received via a Virtual Cognitive Pilot Channel(which may be decoded in higher radio communication layers such as e.g.a network communication layer or an application communication layer).

The at least one radio communication technology family may include oneor more of the following radio communication technology families:

-   -   a Short Range radio communication technology family;    -   a Metropolitan Area System radio communication technology        family; and    -   a Cellular Wide Area radio communication technology family.

In various embodiments, the Short Range radio communication technologyfamily may include at least one of the following radio communicationtechnologies:

-   -   a Bluetooth radio communication technology;    -   an Ultra Wide Band (UWB) radio communication technology;    -   a Wireless Local Area Network radio communication technology        (e.g. according to an IEEE 802.11 (e.g. IEEE 802.11n) radio        communication standard);    -   IrDA (Infrared Data Association);    -   Z-Wave;    -   ZigBee;    -   HiperLAN/2 (HIgh PErformance Radio LAN; an alternative ATM-like        5 GHz standardized technology),    -   IEEE 802.11a (5 GHz);    -   IEEE 802.11g (2.4 GHz); and    -   IEEE 802.11VHT (VHT=Very High Throughput).

Furthermore, the Short Range radio communication technology family maybe divided into the following Short Range radio communication technologysub-families:

-   -   a personal area networks (Wireless PANs) radio communication        sub-family, which may include e.g. IrDA (Infrared Data        Association), Bluetooth, UWB, Z-Wave and ZigBee; and    -   a wireless local area networks (W-LANs) radio communication        sub-family, which may include e.g. HiperLAN/2 (HIgh PErformance        Radio LAN; an alternative ATM-like 5 GHz standardized        technology), IEEE 802.11a (5 GHz), IEEE 802.11g (2.4 GHz), IEEE        802.11n, IEEE 802.11VHT (VHT=Very High Throughput).

In various embodiments, the Metropolitan Area System radio communicationtechnology family may include at least one of the following radiocommunication technologies:

-   -   a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) (e.g.        according to an IEEE 802.16 radio communication standard, e.g.        WiMax fixed radio communication standard or WiMax mobile radio        communication standard);    -   WiPro;    -   HiperMAN (High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network); and    -   IEEE 802.16m Advanced Air Interface

Furthermore, the Metropolitan Area System radio communication technologyfamily may be divided into the following Metropolitan Area System radiocommunication technology sub-families:

a Wireless campus area networks (W-CANs) radio communication sub-family,which may be considered one form of a metropolitan area network,specific to an academic setting, and which may include e.g. WiMAX,WiPro, HiperMAN (High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network), orIEEE 802.16m Advanced Air Interface; and

-   -   a Wireless metropolitan area networks (W-MANs) radio        communication sub-family, which may be limited to a room,        building, campus or specific metropolitan area (e.g., a city)        respectively, and which may include e.g. WiMAX, WiPro, HiperMAN        (High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network), or IEEE        802.16m Advanced Air Interface.

In various embodiments, the Cellular Wide Area radio communicationtechnology family may include at least one of the following radiocommunication technologies:

-   -   a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) radio        communication technology;    -   a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) radio communication        technology;    -   an Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) radio        communication technology; and    -   a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) radio        communication technology (e.g. UMTS (Universal Mobile        Telecommunications System), FOMA (Freedom of Multimedia Access),        3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution), 3GPP LTE Advanced (Long Term        Evolution Advanced));    -   CDMA2000 (Code division multiple access 2000);    -   CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data);    -   Mobitex;    -   3G (Third Generation);    -   CSD (Circuit Switched Data);    -   HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data);    -   UMTS (3G) (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (Third        Generation));    -   W-CDMA (UMTS) (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (Universal        Mobile Telecommunications System));    -   HSPA (High Speed Packet Access);    -   HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access);    -   HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access);    -   HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access Plus);    -   UMTS-TDD (Universal Mobile Telecommunications        System-Time-Division Duplex);    -   TD-CDMA (Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access);    -   TD-CDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple        Access);    -   3GPP Rel. 8 Pre-4G) (3rd Generation Partnership Project Release        8 (Pre-4th Generation));    -   UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access);    -   E-UTRA (Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access);    -   LTE Advanced (4G) (Long Term Evolution Advanced (4th        Generation));    -   cdmaOne (2G);    -   CDMA2000 (3G);    -   EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only);    -   AMPS (1G) (Advanced Mobile Phone System (1st Generation));    -   TACS/ETACS (Total Access Communication System/Extended Total        Access Communication System);    -   D-AMPS (2G) (Digital AMPS (2nd Generation));    -   PTT (Push-to-talk);    -   MTS (Mobile Telephone System);    -   IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone System);    -   AMTS (Advanced Mobile Telephone System);    -   OLT (Norwegian for Offentlig Landmobil Telefoni, Public Land        Mobile Telephony);    -   MTD (Swedish abbreviation for Mobiltelefonisystem D, or Mobile        telephony system D);    -   Autotel/PALM (Public Automated Land Mobile);    -   ARP (Finnish for Autoradiopuhelin, “car radio phone”);    -   NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony);    -   Hicap (High capacity version of NTT (Nippon Telegraph and        Telephone));    -   CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data);    -   DataTAC;    -   iDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network);    -   PDC (Personal Digital Cellular);    -   PHS (Personal Handy-phone System);    -   WIDEN (Wideband Integrated Digital Enhanced Network);    -   iBurst;    -   Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA, also referred to as 3GPP Generic        Access Network, or GAN standard).

The Cellular Wide Area radio communication technology family may also beconsidered as a Wireless Wide Area Network (Wireless WAN) radiocommunication technology family, which may include e.g. (computer)networks that cover a broad area (i.e., any network whose communicationslinks cross metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries) and mayinclude e.g. iPRS, CDMA2000 (Co de division multiple access 2000), GSM,CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data), Mobitex, 3G (Third Generation), CSD(Circuit Switched Data), HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data), UMTS(3G) (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (Third Generation)),W-CDMA (UMTS) (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (Universal MobileTelecommunications System)), HSPA (High Speed Packet Access), HSDPA(High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink PacketAccess), HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access Plus), UMTS-TDD (UniversalMobile Telecommunications System-Time-Division Duplex), TD-CDMA (TimeDivision-Code Division Multiple Access), TD-CDMA (TimeDivision-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), FOMA (Freedom ofMultimedia Access), 3GPP Rel. 8 (Pre-4G) (3rd Generation PartnershipProject Release 8 (Pre-4th Generation)), UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial RadioAccess), E-UTRA (Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access), LTE Advanced(4G) (Long Term Evolution Advanced (4th Generation)), cdmaOne (2G),CDMA2000 (3G) (Code division multiple access 2000(Third generation)),EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only), AMPS (1G)(Advanced Mobile Phone System (1st Generation)), TACS/ETACS (TotalAccess Communication System/Extended Total Access Communication System),D-AMPS (2G) (Digital AMPS (2nd Generation)), PTT (Push-to-talk), MTS(Mobile Telephone System), IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone System), AMTS(Advanced Mobile Telephone System), OLT (Norwegian for OffentligLandmobil Telefoni, Public Land Mobile Telephony), MTD (Swedishabbreviation for Mobiltelefonisystem D, or Mobile telephony system D),Autotel/PALM (Public Automated Land Mobile), ARP (Finnish forAutoradiopuhelin, “car radio phone”), NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony),Hicap (High capacity version of NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone)),CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data), Mobitex, DataTAC, iDEN (IntegratedDigital Enhanced Network), PDC (Personal Digital Cellular), CSD (CircuitSwitched Data), PHS (Personal Handy-phone System), WiDEN (WidebandIntegrated Digital Enhanced Network), iBurst, Unlicensed Mobile Access(UMA, also referred to as 3GPP Generic Access Network, or GAN standard).

In various embodiments, the at least one other radio communicationtechnology family may include one or more of the following radiocommunication technology families:

-   -   a Short Range radio communication technology family;    -   a Metropolitan Area System radio communication technology        family; and    -   a Cellular Wide Area radio communication technology family.

In various embodiments, the Short Range radio communication technologyfamily may include at least one of the following radio communicationtechnologies:

-   -   a Bluetooth radio communication technology;    -   an Ultra Wide Band (UWB) radio communication technology;    -   a Wireless Local Area Network radio communication technology        (e.g. according to an IEEE 802.11 (e.g. IEEE 802.11n) radio        communication standard);    -   IrDA (Infrared Data Association);    -   Z-Wave;    -   ZigBee;    -   HiperLAN/2 (HIgh PErformance Radio LAN; an alternative ATM-like        5 GHz standardized technology);    -   IEEE 802.11a (5 GHz);    -   IEEE 802.11g (2.4 GHz); and    -   IEEE 802.11VHT (VHT=Very High Throughput).

Furthermore, the Short Range radio communication technology family maybe divided into the following Short Range radio communication technologysub-families:

-   -   a personal area networks (Wireless PANs) radio communication        sub-family, which may include e.g. IrDA (Infrared Data        Association), Bluetooth, UWB, Z-Wave and ZigBee; and    -   a wireless local area networks (W-LANs) radio communication        sub-family, which may include e.g. HiperLAN/2 (HIgh PErformance        Radio LAN; an alternative ATM-like 5 GHz standardized        technology), IEEE 802.11a (5 GHz), IEEE 802.11g (2.4 GHz), IEEE        802.11n, IEEE 802.11VHT (VHT=Very High Throughput).

In various embodiments, the Metropolitan Area System radio communicationtechnology family may include at least one of the following radiocommunication technologies:

-   -   a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) (e.g.        according to an IEEE 802.16 radio communication standard, e.g.        WiMax fixed radio communication standard or WiMax mobile radio        communication standard);    -   WiPro;

HiperMAN (High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network); and

-   -   IEEE 802.16m Advanced Air Interface.

Furthermore, the Metropolitan Area System radio communication technologyfamily may be divided into the following Metropolitan Area System radiocommunication technology sub-families:

-   -   a Wireless campus area networks (W-CANs) radio communication        sub-family, which may be considered one form of a metropolitan        area network, specific to an academic setting, and which may        include e.g. WiMAX, WiPro, HiperMAN (High Performance Radio        Metropolitan Area Network), or IEEE 802.16m Advanced Air        Interface; and    -   a Wireless metropolitan area networks (W-MANs) radio        communication sub-family, which may be limited to a room,        building, campus or specific metropolitan area (e.g., a city)        respectively, and which may include e.g. WiMAX, WiPro, HiperMAN        (High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network), or IEEE        802.16m Advanced Air Interface.

In various embodiments, the Cellular Wide Area radio communicationtechnology family may include at least one of the following radiocommunication technologies:

-   -   a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) radio        communication technology;    -   a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) radio communication        technology;    -   an Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) radio        communication technology; and    -   a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) radio        communication technology (e.g. UMTS (Universal Mobile        Telecommunications System), FOMA (Freedom of Multimedia Access),        3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution), 3GPP LTE Advanced (Long Term        Evolution Advanced));    -   CDMA2000 (Code division multiple access 2000);    -   CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data);    -   Mobitex;    -   3G (Third Generation);    -   CSD (Circuit Switched Data);    -   HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data);    -   UMTS (3G) (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (Third        Generation));    -   W-CDMA (UMTS) (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (Universal        Mobile Telecommunications System));    -   HSPA (High Speed Packet Access);    -   HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access);    -   HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access);    -   HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access Plus);    -   UMTS-TDD (Universal Mobile Telecommunications        System-Time-Division Duplex);    -   TD-CDMA (Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access);    -   TD-CDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple        Access);    -   3GPP Rel. 8 (Pre-4G) (3rd Generation Partnership Project Release        8 (Pre-4th Generation));    -   UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access);    -   E-UTRA (Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access);    -   LTE Advanced (4G) (Long Term Evolution Advanced (4th        Generation));    -   cdmaOne (2G);    -   CDMA2000 (3G) (Code division multiple access 2000(Third        generation));    -   EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only);    -   AMPS (1G) (Advanced Mobile Phone System (1st Generation));    -   TACS/ETACS (Total Access Communication System/Extended Total        Access Communication System);    -   D-AMPS (2G) (Digital AMPS (2nd Generation));    -   PTT (Push-to-talk);    -   MTS (Mobile Telephone System);    -   IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone System);    -   AMTS (Advanced Mobile Telephone System);    -   OLT Norwegian for Offentlig Landmobil Telefoni, Public Land        Mobile Telephony);    -   MTD (Swedish abbreviation for Mobiltelefonisystem D, or Mobile        telephony system D);    -   Autotel/PALM (Public Automated Land Mobile);    -   ARP (Finnish for Autoradiopuhelin, “car radio phone”);    -   NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony);    -   Hicap (High capacity version of NTT (Nippon Telegraph and        Telephone));    -   CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data);    -   DataTAC;    -   iDEN integrated Digital Enhanced Network);    -   PDC (Personal Digital Cellular);    -   PHS (Personal Handy-phone System);    -   WiDEN (Wideband Integrated Digital Enhanced Network);    -   iBurst; and    -   Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA, also referred to as 3GPP Generic        Access Network, or GAN standard).

The Cellular Wide Area radio communication technology family may also beconsidered as a Wireless Wide Area Network (Wireless WAN) radiocommunication technology family, which may include e.g. (computer)networks that cover a broad area (i.e., any network whose communicationslinks cross metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries) and mayinclude e.g. GPRS, CDMA2000 (Code division multiple access 2000), GSM,CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data), Mobitex, 3G (Third Generation), CSD(Circuit Switched Data), HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data), UMTS(3G) (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (Third Generation)),W-CDMA (UMTS) (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (Universal MobileTelecommunications System)), HSPA (High Speed Packet Access), HSDPA(High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink PacketAccess), HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access Plus), UMTS-TDD (UniversalMobile Telecommunications System-Time-Division Duplex), TD-CDMA (TimeDivision-Code Division Multiple Access), TD-CDMA (TimeDivision-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), FOMA (Freedom ofMultimedia Access), 3GPP Rel. 8 (Pre-4G) (3rd Generation PartnershipProject Release 8 (Pre-4th Generation)), UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial RadioAccess), E-UTRA (Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access), LTE Advanced(4G) (Long Term Evolution Advanced (4th Generation)), cdmaOne (2G),CDMA2000 (3G) (Code division multiple access 2000(Third generation)),EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only), AMPS (1G)(Advanced Mobile Phone System (1st Generation)), TACS/ETACS (TotalAccess Communication System/Extended Total Access Communication System),D-AMPS (2G) (Digital AMPS (2nd Generation)), PTT (Push-to-talk), MTS(Mobile Telephone System), IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone System), AMTS(Advanced Mobile Telephone System), OLT (Norwegian for OffentligLandmobil Telefoni, Public Land Mobile Telephony), MTD (Swedishabbreviation for Mobiltelefonisystem D, or Mobile telephony system D),Autotel/PALM (Public Automated Land Mobile), ARP (Finnish forAutoradiopuhelin, “car radio phone”), NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony),Hicap (High capacity version of NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone)),CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data), Mobitex, DataTAC, iDEN (IntegratedDigital Enhanced Network), PDC (Personal Digital Cellular), CSD (CircuitSwitched Data), PHS (Personal Handy-phone System), WiDEN (WidebandIntegrated Digital Enhanced Network), iBurst, Unlicensed Mobile AccessUMA, also referred to as 3GPP Generic Access Network, or GAN standard).

Furthermore, in various embodiments, the at least one radiocommunication technology family may include a radio communicationtechnology in which the access to radio resources is provided in arandom manner (in other words, a random access technology is provided).The at least one other radio communication technology family may includea radio communication technology in which the access to radio resourcesis provided in a centrally controlled manner.

Furthermore, in various embodiments, the at least one radiocommunication technology family may include a radio communicationtechnology in which the access to radio resources is provided in acentrally controlled manner. The at least one other radio communicationtechnology family may include a radio communication technology in whichthe access to radio resources is provided in a random manner (in otherwords, a random access technology is provided).

Furthermore, in various embodiments, the mobile radio communicationdevice 400 may include a power supply switch 406 configured to provide(electrical) power to the receiver 302 or to the radio communicationprotocol controller 304. Furthermore, the mobile radio communicationdevice 400 may include a power supply switch controller 408 configuredto control the power supply switch 406 with respect to the power supply.The power supply switch controller 408 may be configured to control thepower supply switch 406 to deactivate power supply to the receiver 302while the radio communication protocol controller 304 performsprocessing. In an embodiment, the power supply switch 406 may beconfigured to additionally (e.g. selectively) provide (electrical) powerto e.g. the decoder 402, the further receiver 410, the first memory 412,the working memory 416, the receiver controller 420, and the radioscanner 422.

In various embodiments, the mobile radio communication device 400 mayfurther include a further receiver 410 coupled to the radiocommunication protocol controller 304 such that the receivercharacteristics of the further receiver 410 may be controlled by theradio communication protocol controller 304.

In various embodiments, the radio communication protocol controller 304may be configured to provide at least one of the following radiocommunication protocols of the at least one radio communicationtechnology of the at least one other radio communication technologyfamily:

-   -   a physical radio communication protocol layer radio        communication protocol;    -   a medium access control (MAC) radio communication protocol layer        radio communication protocol; and    -   a network radio communication protocol layer radio communication        protocol.

In an embodiment, the receiver 302 may be configured to receive at leasta portion of the at least one radio communication protocol of the atleast one radio communication technology of the at least one other radiocommunication technology family (e.g. together with or separate from thereceived pilot information).

Furthermore, in various embodiments, the mobile radio communicationdevice 400 may further include a first memory 412 configured to storethe program code 414 implementing at least a portion of the at least oneradio communication protocol of the at least one radio communicationtechnology of the at least one other radio communication technologyfamily.

Furthermore, in various embodiments, the mobile radio communicationdevice 400 may further include a working memory 416 coupled to the radiocommunication protocol controller 304, wherein the working memory 416may store the program code 418 (which may include the program code 414stored in the first memory 412, which may be transferred into theworking memory 416) the radio communication protocol controller 304 usesto provide at least one radio communication protocol of the at least oneradio communication technology of the at least one other radiocommunication technology family based on the received pilot information.

In various embodiments, the radio communication protocol controller 304may be configured to load the required portion of the program code 414of the at least one radio communication protocol of the at least oneradio communication technology of the at least one other radiocommunication technology family from the first memory 412 into theworking memory 416.

Furthermore, in various embodiments, the mobile radio communicationdevice 400 may optionally further include a receiver controller 420configured to control the receiver 302 such that only predefined pilotinformation is forwarded to the radio communication protocol controller304.

In an embodiment, the predefined pilot information may include pilotinformation of at least one predefined radio communication technology ofat least one other radio communication technology family.

Furthermore, in various embodiments, the mobile radio communicationdevice 400 may optionally further include a radio scanner 422 configuredto scan for radio communication signals other than the signals receivedby the receiver 302.

In various embodiments, the decoder 402, the power supply switchcontroller 408, the further receiver 410, the first memory 412, theworking memory 416, the receiver controller 420, and the radio scanner422 may be coupled with each other, e.g. via an electrical connection306 such as e.g. a cable or a computer bus or via any other suitableelectrical connection to exchange electrical signals.

FIG. 5 shows a flow diagram 500 illustrating a method for controlling amobile radio communication device. The method may include, in 502,receiving radio pilot information via a predefined physical radiochannel according to a radio communication technology family, whereinthe radio pilot information includes availability information about theavailability of at least one radio communication technology of at leastone other radio communication technology family, and, in 504, providingat least one radio communication protocol of the at least one radiocommunication technology of the at least one other radio communicationtechnology family based on the received pilot information.

The at least one radio communication protocol of the at least one radiocommunication technology of the at least one other radio communicationtechnology family may be provided by a radio communication protocolcontroller having a programmable controller, e.g. a microprocessor (e.g.a Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) microprocessor or a ReducedInstruction Set Computer (RISC) microprocessor).

The method may further include decoding the received pilot information.

The decoding may be carried out by a decoder including at least oneradio baseband circuit configured to decode the received pilotinformation (which may be implemented on the same chip (e.g. in the sameprocessor, e.g. in the same microprocessor) as the radio communicationprotocol controller or on a separate chip).

The decoding may include one of the following processes:

-   -   demodulating the received physical channel signal; and    -   extracting the pilot information from the received physical        channel signal.

In various embodiments, the predefined physical channel may be aCognitive Pilot Channel.

In various embodiments, the predefined physical channel may be anon-cognitive physical channel, wherein the pilot information isreceived via a Virtual Cognitive Pilot Channel (which may be decoded inhigher radio communication layers such as e.g. a network communicationlayer or an application communication layer).

The at least one radio communication technology family may include oneor more of the following radio communication technology families:

-   -   a Short Range radio communication technology family;    -   a Metropolitan Area System radio communication technology        family; and    -   a Cellular Wide Area radio communication technology family.

In various embodiments, the Short Range radio communication technologyfamily may include at least one of the following radio communicationtechnologies:

-   -   a Bluetooth radio communication technology;    -   an Ultra Wide Band (UWB) radio communication technology;    -   a Wireless Local Area Network radio communication technology        (e.g. according to an IEEE 802.11 (e.g. IEEE 802.11n) radio        communication standard);    -   IrDA (Infrared Data Association);    -   Z-Wave;    -   ZigBee;    -   HiperLAN/2 (HIgh PErformance Radio LAN; an alternative ATM-like        5 GHz standardized technology);    -   IEEE 802.11a (5 GHz);    -   IEEE 802.11g (2.4 GHz); and    -   IEEE 802.11VHT (VHT=Very High Throughput).

Furthermore, the Short Range radio communication technology family maybe divided into the following Short Range radio communication technologysub-families:

-   -   a personal area networks (Wireless PANs) radio communication        Short Range radio communication technology sub-family, which may        include e.g. IrDA (Infrared Data Association), Bluetooth, UWB,        Z-Wave and ZigBee; and    -   a wireless local area networks (W-LANs) radio communication        sub-family, which may include e.g. HiperLAN/2 (HIgh PErformance        Radio LAN; an alternative ATM-like 5 GHz standardized        technology), IEEE 802.11a (5 GHz), IEEE 802.11g (2.4 GHz), IEEE        802.11n, IEEE 802.11VHT (VHT=UT Very High Throughput).

In various embodiments, the Metropolitan Area System radio communicationtechnology family may include at least one of the following radiocommunication technologies:

-   -   a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) (e.g.        according to an IEEE 802.16 radio communication standard, e.g.        WiMax fixed radio communication standard or WiMax mobile radio        communication standard);    -   WiPro;    -   HiperMAN (High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network); and    -   IEEE 802.16m Advanced Air Interface

Furthermore, the Metropolitan Area System radio communication technologyfamily may be divided into the following Metropolitan Area System radiocommunication technology sub-families:

-   -   a Wireless campus area networks (W-CANs) radio communication        sub-family, which may be considered one form of a metropolitan        area network, specific to an academic setting, and which may        include e.g. WiMAX, WiPro, HiperMAN (High Performance Radio        Metropolitan Area Network), or IEEE 802.16m Advanced Air        Interface; and    -   a Wireless metropolitan area networks (W-MANs) radio        communication sub-family, which may be limited to a room,        building, campus or specific metropolitan area (e.g., a city)        respectively, and which may include e.g. WiMAX, WiPro, HiperMAN        (High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network), or IEEE        802.16m Advanced Air Interface.

In various embodiments, the Cellular Wide Area radio communicationtechnology family may include at least one of the following radiocommunication technologies:

-   -   a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) radio        communication technology;    -   a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) radio communication        technology;    -   an Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) radio        communication technology; and    -   a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) radio        communication technology (e.g. UMTS (Universal Mobile        Telecommunications System), FOMA (Freedom of Multimedia Access),        3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution), 3GPP LTE Advanced (Long Term        Evolution Advanced));    -   CDMA2000 (Code division multiple access 2000);    -   CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data);    -   Mobitex;    -   3G (Third Generation);    -   CSD (Circuit Switched Data);    -   HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data);    -   UMTS (3G) (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (Third        Generation));    -   W-CDMA (UMTS) (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (Universal        Mobile Telecommunications System));    -   HSPA (High Speed Packet Access);    -   HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access);    -   HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access);    -   HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access Plus);    -   UMTS-TDD (Universal Mobile Telecommunications        System-Time-Division Duplex);    -   TD-CDMA (Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access);    -   TD-CDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple        Access);    -   3GPP Rel. 8 (Pre-4G) (3rd Generation Partnership Project Release        8 (Pre-4th Generation));    -   UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access);    -   E-UTRA (Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access);    -   LTE Advanced (4G) (Long Term Evolution Advanced (4th        Generation));    -   cdmaOne (2G);    -   CDMA2000 (3G) (Code division multiple access 2000(Third        generation));    -   EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only);    -   AMPS (1G) (Advanced Mobile Phone System (1st Generation));    -   TACS/ETACS (Total Access Communication System/Extended Total        Access Communication System);    -   D-AMPS (2G) (Digital AMPS (2nd Generation));    -   PTT (Push-to-talk);    -   MTS (Mobile Telephone System);    -   IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone System);    -   AMTS (Advanced Mobile Telephone System);    -   OLT (Norwegian for Offentlig Landmobil Telefoni, Public Land        Mobile Telephony);    -   MTD (Swedish abbreviation for Mobiltelefonisystem D, or Mobile        telephony system D);    -   Autotel/PALM (Public Automated Land Mobile);    -   ARP (Finnish for Autoradiopuhelin, “car radio phone”);    -   NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony);    -   Hicap (High capacity version of NTT (Nippon Telegraph and        Telephone));    -   CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data);    -   DataTAC;    -   iDEN Integrated Digital Enhanced Network);    -   PDC (Personal Digital Cellular);    -   PHS (Personal Handy-phone System);    -   WIDEN (Wideband Integrated Digital Enhanced Network);    -   iBurst; and    -   Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA, also referred to as 3GPP Generic        Access Network, or GAN standard).

The Cellular Wide Area radio communication technology family may also beconsidered as a Wireless Wide Area Network (Wireless WAN) radiocommunication technology family, which may include e.g. (computer)networks that cover a broad area (i.e., any network whose communicationslinks cross metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries) and mayinclude e.g. GPRS, CDMA2000 (Code division multiple access 2000), GSM,CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data), Mobitex, 3G (Third Generation), CSD(Circuit Switched Data), HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data), UMTS(3G) (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (Third Generation)),W-CDMA (UMTS) (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (Universal MobileTelecommunications System)), HSPA (High Speed Packet Access), HSDPA(High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink PacketAccess), HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access Plus), UMTS-TDD (UniversalMobile Telecommunications System-Time-Division Duplex), TD-CDMA (TimeDivision-Code Division Multiple Access), TD-CDMA (TimeDivision-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), FOMA (Freedom ofMultimedia Access), 3GPP Rel. 8 (Pre-4G) (3rd Generation PartnershipProject Release 8 (Pre-4th Generation)), UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial RadioAccess), E-UTRA (Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access), LTE Advanced(4G) (Long Term Evolution Advanced (4th Generation)), cdmaOne (2G),CDMA2000 (3G) (Code division multiple access 2000(Third generation)),EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only), AMPS (1G)(Advanced Mobile Phone System (1st Generation)), TACS/ETACS (TotalAccess Communication System/Extended Total Access Communication System),D-AMPS (2G) Digital AMPS (2nd Generation)), PTT (Push-to-talk), MTS(Mobile Telephone System), IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone System), AMTS(Advanced Mobile Telephone System), OLT (Norwegian for OffentligLandmobil Telefoni, Public Land Mobile Telephony), MTD (Swedishabbreviation for Mobiltelefonisystem D, or Mobile telephony system D),Autotel/PALM (Public Automated Land Mobile), ARP (Finnish forAutoradiopuhelin, “car radio phone”), NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony),Hicap (High capacity version of NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone)),CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data), Mobitex, DataTAC, iDEN (IntegratedDigital Enhanced Network), PDC (Personal Digital Cellular), CSD (CircuitSwitched Data), PHS (Personal Handy-phone System), WiDEN (WidebandIntegrated Digital Enhanced Network), iBurst, Unlicensed Mobile Access(UMA, also referred to as 3GPP Generic Access Network, or GAN standard).

In various embodiments, the at least one other radio communicationtechnology family may include one or more of the following radiocommunication technology families:

-   -   a Short Range radio communication technology family;    -   a Metropolitan Area System radio communication technology        family; and    -   a Cellular Wide Area radio communication technology family.

In various embodiments, the Short Range radio communication technologyfamily may include at least one of the following radio communicationtechnologies:

-   -   a Bluetooth radio communication technology;    -   an Ultra Wide Band (UWB) radio communication technology;    -   a Wireless Local Area Network radio communication technology        (e.g. according to an IEEE 802.11 (e.g. IEEE 802.11n) radio        communication standard);    -   IrDA (Infrared Data Association);    -   Z-Wave;    -   ZigBee;    -   HiperLAN/2 (High PErformance Radio LAN; an alternative ATM-like        5 GHz standardized technology);    -   IEEE 802.11a (5 GHz);    -   IEEE 802.11g (2.4 GHz); and    -   IEEE 802.11VHT (VHT=Very High Throughput).

Furthermore, the Short Range radio communication technology family maybe divided into the following Short Range radio communication technologysub-families:

-   -   a personal area networks (Wireless PANs) radio communication        sub-family, which may include e.g. IrDA (Infrared Data        Association), Bluetooth, UWB, Z-Wave and ZigBee; and

a wireless local area networks (W-LANs) radio communication sub-family,which may include e.g. HiperLAN/2 (High PErformance Radio LAN; analternative ATM-like 5 GHz standardized technology), IEEE 802.11a (5GHz), IEEE 802.11g (2.4 GHz), IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11VHT (VHT=VeryHigh Throughput).

In various embodiments, the Metropolitan Area System radio communicationtechnology family may include at least one of the following radiocommunication technologies:

-   -   a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) (e.g.        according to an IEEE 802.16 radio communication standard, e.g.        WiMax fixed radio communication standard or WiMax mobile radio        communication standard);    -   WiPro;    -   HiperMAN (High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network); and    -   IEEE 802.16m Advanced Air Interface

Furthermore, the Metropolitan Area System radio communication technologyfamily may be divided into the following Metropolitan Area System radiocommunication technology sub-families:

-   -   a Wireless campus area networks (W-CANs) radio communication        sub-family, which may be considered one form of a metropolitan        area network, specific to an academic setting, and which may        include e.g. WiMAX, WiPro, HiperMAN (High Performance Radio        Metropolitan Area Network), or IEEE 802.16m Advanced Air        Interface; and    -   a Wireless metropolitan area networks (W-MANs) radio        communication sub-family, which may be limited to a room,        building, campus or specific metropolitan area (e.g., a city)        respectively, and which may include e.g. WiMAX, WiPro, HiperMAN        (High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network), or IEEE        802.16m Advanced Air Interface.

In various embodiments, the Cellular Wide Area radio communicationtechnology family may include at least one of the following radiocommunication technologies:

-   -   a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) radio        communication technology;    -   a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) radio communication        technology;    -   an Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) radio        communication technology; and    -   a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) radio        communication technology (e.g. UMTS (Universal Mobile        Telecommunications System), FOMA (Freedom of Multimedia Access),        3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution), 3GPP LTE Advanced (Long Term        Evolution Advanced));    -   CDMA2000 (Code division multiple access 2000);    -   CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data);    -   Mobitex;    -   3G (Third Generation);    -   CSD (Circuit Switched Data);    -   HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data);    -   UMTS (3G) (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (Third        Generation));    -   W-CDMA (UMTS) (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (Universal        Mobile Telecommunications System));    -   HSPA (High Speed Packet Access);    -   HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access);    -   HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access);    -   HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access Plus);    -   UMTS-TDD (Universal Mobile Telecommunications        System-Time-Division Duplex);    -   TD-CDMA (Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access);    -   TD-CDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple        Access);    -   3GPP Rel. 8 (Pre-4G) (3rd Generation Partnership Project Release        8 (Pre-4th Generation));    -   UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access);    -   E-UTRA (Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access);    -   LTE Advanced (4G) (Long Term Evolution Advanced (4th        Generation));    -   cdmaOne (2G);    -   CDMA2000 (3G) (Code division multiple access 2000(Third        generation));    -   EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only);    -   AMPS (1G) (Advanced Mobile Phone System (1st Generation));    -   TACS/ETACS (Total Access Communication System/Extended Total        Access Communication System);    -   D-AMPS (2G) (Digital AMPS (2nd Generation));    -   PTT (Push-to-talk);    -   MTS (Mobile Telephone System);    -   IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone System);    -   AMTS (Advanced Mobile Telephone System);    -   OLT (Norwegian for Offentlig Landmobil Telefoni, Public Land        Mobile Telephony);    -   MTD (Swedish abbreviation for Mobiltelefonisystem D, or Mobile        telephony system D);    -   Autotel/PALM (Public Automated Land Mobile);    -   ARP (Finnish for Autoradiopuhelin, “car radio phone”);    -   NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony);    -   Hicap (High capacity version of NTT (Nippon Telegraph and        Telephone));    -   CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data);    -   DataTAC;    -   iDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network);    -   PDC (Personal Digital Cellular);    -   PHS (Personal Handy-phone System);    -   WiDEN (Wideband Integrated Digital Enhanced Network);    -   iBurst; and    -   Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA, also referred to as 3GPP Generic        Access Network, or GAN standard).

The Cellular Wide Area radio communication technology family may also beconsidered as a Wireless Wide Area Network (Wireless WAN) radiocommunication technology family, which may include e.g. (computer)networks that cover a broad area (i.e., any network whose communicationslinks cross metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries) and mayinclude e.g. GPRS, CDMA2000 (Code division multiple access 2000), GSM,CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data), Mobitex, 3G (Third Generation), CSD(Circuit Switched Data), HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data), UMTS(3G) (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (Third Generation)),W-CDMA (UMTS) (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (Universal MobileTelecommunications System)), HSPA (High Speed Packet Access), HSDPA(High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink PacketAccess), HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access Plus), UMTS-TDD (UniversalMobile Telecommunications System-Time-Division Duplex), TD-CDMA (TimeDivision-Code Division Multiple Access), TD-CDMA (TimeDivision-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), FOMA (Freedom ofMultimedia Access), 3GPP Rel. 8 (Pre-4G) (3rd Generation PartnershipProject Release 8 (Pre-4th Generation)), UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial RadioAccess), E-UTRA (Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access), LTE Advanced(4G) (Long Term Evolution Advanced (4th Generation)), cdmaOne (2G),CDMA2000 (3G) (Code division multiple access 2000(Third generation)),EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only), AMPS (1G)(Advanced Mobile Phone System (1st Generation)), TACS/ETACS (TotalAccess Communication System/Extended Total Access Communication System),D-AMPS (2G) (Digital AMPS (2nd Generation)), PTT (Push-to-talk), MTS(Mobile Telephone System), IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone System), AMTS(Advanced Mobile Telephone System), OLT (Norwegian for OffentligLandmobil Telefoni, Public Land Mobile Telephony), MTD (Swedishabbreviation for Mobiltelefonisystem D, or Mobile telephony system D),Autotel/PALM (Public Automated Land Mobile), ARP (Finnish forAutoradiopuhelin, “car radio phone”), NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony),Hicap (High capacity version of NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone)),CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data), Mobitex, DataTAC, iDEN (IntegratedDigital Enhanced Network), PDC (Personal Digital Cellular), CSD (CircuitSwitched Data), PHS (Personal Handy-phone System), WiDEN (WidebandIntegrated Digital Enhanced Network), iBurst, Unlicensed Mobile Access(UMA, also referred to as 3GPP Generic Access Network, or GAN standard).

Furthermore, in various embodiments, the at least one radiocommunication technology family may include a radio communicationtechnology in which the access to radio resources is provided in arandom manner (in other words, a random access technology is provided).The at least one other radio communication technology family may includea radio communication technology in which the access to radio resourcesis provided in a centrally controlled manner.

Furthermore, in various embodiments, the at least one radiocommunication technology family may include a radio communicationtechnology in which the access to radio resources is provided in acentrally controlled manner. The at least one other radio communicationtechnology family may include a radio communication technology in whichthe access to radio resources is provided in a random manner (in otherwords, a random access technology is provided).

The method may further include selectively providing power to thereceiver or the radio communication protocol controller.

In various embodiments, the method may further include controlling afurther receiver coupled to a radio communication protocol controllerproviding at least one radio communication protocol of the at least oneradio communication technology of the at least one other radiocommunication technology family such that the receiver characteristicsof the further receiver may be controlled by the radio communicationprotocol controller.

In an embodiment, providing at least one radio communication protocol ofthe at least one radio communication technology of the at least oneother radio communication technology family may include providing atleast one of the following radio communication protocols of the at leastone radio communication technology of the at least one other radiocommunication technology family:

-   -   a physical radio communication protocol layer radio        communication protocol;    -   a medium access control (MAC) radio communication protocol layer        radio communication protocol; and    -   a network radio communication protocol layer radio communication        protocol.

The method may further include receiving at least a portion of the atleast one radio communication protocol of the at least one radiocommunication technology of the at least one other radio communicationtechnology family (together with or separate from the pilotinformation).

In various embodiments, the method may further include storing programcode implementing at least a portion of the at least one radiocommunication protocol of the at least one radio communicationtechnology of the at least one other radio communication technologyfamily in a first memory.

In various embodiments, the method may further include storing programcode a radio communication protocol controller uses to provide at leastone radio communication protocol of the at least one radio communicationtechnology of the at least one other radio communication technologyfamily based on the received pilot information in a working memorycoupled to the radio communication protocol controller.

The required portion of the program code of the at least one radiocommunication protocol of the at least one radio communicationtechnology of the at least one other radio communication technologyfamily may be loaded from the first memory into the working memory.

In various embodiments, the method may further include forwarding onlypredefined received pilot information to a radio communication protocolcontroller.

In various embodiments, the predefined pilot information may includepilot information of at least one predefined radio communicationtechnology of at least one other radio communication technology family.

In various embodiments, the method may further include radio scanningfor radio communication signals other than the signals received by thereceiver.

FIG. 6 shows a radio communication device 600 in accordance with yetanother embodiment.

In various embodiments, the radio communication device 600 may include acognitive pilot channel receiver 602 configured to receive cognitivepilot channel information via a predefined physical radio channel. Theradio communication device 600 may further include a determinationcircuit 604 configured to determine as to whether a predefined receivingcriterion of the receiving of radio signals is fulfilled. Furthermore,the radio communication device 600 may include a cognitive pilot channelreceiver activator 606 configured to activate the cognitive pilotchannel receiver 602 based on whether the predefined receiving criterionof the receiving of radio signals is fulfilled or not. The cognitivepilot channel receiver 602, the determination circuit 604, and thecognitive pilot channel receiver activator 606 may be coupled with eachother, e.g. via an electrical connection 608 such as e.g. a cable or acomputer bus or via any other suitable electrical connection to exchangeelectrical signals.

FIG. 7 shows a radio communication device 700 in accordance with yetanother embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 7, in addition to the components of the radiocommunication device 600 of FIG. 6, the radio communication device 700may include a radio communication protocol controller 702 configured toprovide at least one radio communication protocol of at least one radiocommunication technology of at least one radio communication technologyfamily selected from a plurality of different radio communicationtechnology families. The radio communication protocol controller 702 mayinclude or be formed by a programmable controller, e.g. a microprocessor(e.g. a Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) microprocessor or aReduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) microprocessor).

In various embodiments, the determination circuit 604 may be configuredto determine as to whether a predefined receiving criterion relating tothe receiving quality of the received radio signals is fulfilled.Furthermore, the cognitive pilot channel receiver activator 606 may beconfigured to activate the cognitive pilot channel receiver 602 based onwhether the receiving quality of the received radio signals is lowerthan a predefined receiving quality threshold.

In various embodiments, the radio communication device 700 may furtherinclude a cognitive pilot channel decoder 704 configured to decode thereceived cognitive pilot channel information. In various embodiments,the cognitive pilot channel decoder 704 may include at least one radiobaseband circuit configured to decode the received cognitive pilotchannel information (which may be implemented on the same chip (e.g. inthe same processor, e.g. in the same microprocessor) as the radiocommunication protocol controller, or on a separate chip). The at leastone radio baseband circuit may include at least one radio basebandcircuit configured to provide at least one of the following basebandfunctions:

-   -   demodulation of the received cognitive pilot channel signal; and    -   extraction of the cognitive pilot channel information from the        received physical channel signal.

In various embodiments, the predefined physical channel is a CognitivePilot Channel.

In various embodiments, the predefined physical channel is anon-cognitive physical channel, wherein the pilot information isreceived via a Virtual Cognitive Pilot Channel (which may be decoded inhigher radio communication layers such as e.g. a network communicationlayer or an application communication layer).

In various embodiments, the at least one radio communication technologyfamily may include at least one of the following radio communicationtechnology families:

-   -   a Short Range radio communication technology family;    -   a Metropolitan Area System radio communication technology        family; and    -   a Cellular Wide Area radio communication technology family.

In various embodiments, the Short Range radio communication technologyfamily may include at least one of the following radio communicationtechnologies:

-   -   a Bluetooth radio communication technology;    -   an Ultra Wide Band (UWB) radio communication technology;    -   a Wireless Local Area Network radio communication technology        (e.g. according to an IEEE 802.11 (e.g. IEEE 802.11n) radio        communication standard);    -   IrDA (Infrared Data Association);    -   Z-Wave;    -   ZigBee;    -   HiperLAN/2 (HIgh PErformance Radio LAN; an alternative ATM-like        5 GHz standardized technology);    -   IEEE 802.11a (5 GHz);    -   IEEE 802.11g (2.4 GHz); and    -   IEEE 802.11VHT (VHT=Very High Throughput).

Furthermore, the Short Range radio communication technology family maybe divided into the following Short Range radio communication technologysub-families:

-   -   a personal area networks (Wireless PANs) radio communication        sub-family, which may include e.g. IrDA (Infrared Data        Association), Bluetooth, UWB, Z-Wave and ZigBee; and    -   a wireless local area networks (W-LANs) radio communication        sub-family, which may include e.g. HiperLAN/2 (HIgh PErformance        Radio LAN; an alternative ATM-like 5 GHz standardized        technology), IEEE 802.11a (5 GHz), IEEE 802.11g (2.4 GHz), IEEE        802.11n, IEEE 802.11VHT (VHT=Very High Throughput).

In various embodiments, the Metropolitan Area System radio communicationtechnology family may include at least one of the following radiocommunication technologies:

-   -   a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) (e.g.        according to an IEEE 802.16 radio communication standard, e.g.        WiMax fixed radio communication standard or WiMax mobile radio        communication standard);    -   WiPro;    -   HiperMAN (High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network); and    -   IEEE 802.16m Advanced Air Interface

Furthermore, the Metropolitan Area System radio communication technologyfamily may be divided into the following Metropolitan Area System radiocommunication technology sub-families:

-   -   a Wireless campus area networks (W-CANs) radio communication        sub-family, which may be considered one form of a metropolitan        area network, specific to an academic setting, and which may        include e.g. WiMAX, WiPro, HiperMAN (High Performance Radio        Metropolitan Area Network), or IEEE 802.16m Advanced Air        Interface; and    -   a Wireless metropolitan area networks (W-MANs) radio        communication sub-family, which may be limited to a room,        building, campus or specific metropolitan area (e.g., a city)        respectively, and which may include e.g. WiMAX, WiPro, HiperMAN        (High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network), or IEEE        802.16m Advanced Air Interface.

In various embodiments, the Cellular Wide Area radio communicationtechnology family may include at least one of the following radiocommunication technologies:

-   -   a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) radio        communication technology;    -   a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) radio communication        technology;    -   an Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) radio        communication technology; and    -   a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) radio        communication technology (e.g. UMTS (Universal Mobile        Telecommunications System), FOMA (Freedom of Multimedia Access),        3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution), 3GPP LTE Advanced (Long Term        Evolution Advanced));    -   CDMA2000 (Code division multiple access 2000);    -   CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data);    -   Mobitex;    -   3G (Third Generation);    -   CSD (Circuit Switched Data);    -   HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data);    -   UMTS (3G) (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (Third        Generation));    -   W-CDMA (UMTS) (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (Universal        Mobile Telecommunications System));    -   HSPA (High Speed Packet Access);    -   HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access);    -   HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access);    -   HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access Plus);    -   UMTS-TDD (Universal Mobile Telecommunications        System-Time-Division Duplex);    -   TD-CDMA (Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access);    -   TD-CDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple        Access);    -   3GPP Rel. 8 (Pre-4G) (3rd Generation Partnership Project Release        8 (Pre-4th Generation));    -   UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access);    -   E-UTRA (Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access);    -   LTE Advanced (4G) (Long Term Evolution Advanced (4th        Generation));    -   cdmaOne (2G);    -   CDMA2000 (3G) (Code division multiple access 2000(Third        generation));    -   EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only);    -   AMPS (1G) (Advanced Mobile Phone System (1st Generation));    -   TACS/ETACS (Total Access Communication System/Extended Total        Access Communication System);    -   D-AMPS (2G) (Digital AMPS (2nd Generation));    -   PTT (Push-to-talk);    -   MTS (Mobile Telephone System);    -   IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone System);    -   AMTS (Advanced Mobile Telephone System);    -   OLT (Norwegian for Offentlig Landmobil Telefoni, Public Land        Mobile Telephony);    -   MTD (Swedish abbreviation for Mobiltelefonisystem D, or Mobile        telephony system D);    -   Autotel/PALM (Public Automated Land Mobile);    -   ARP (Finnish for Autoradiopuhelin, “car radio phone”);    -   NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony);    -   Hicap (High capacity version of NTT (Nippon Telegraph and        Telephone));    -   CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data);    -   DataTAC;    -   iDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network);    -   PDC (Personal Digital Cellular);    -   PHS (Personal Handy-phone System);    -   WiDEN (Wideband Integrated Digital Enhanced Network);    -   iBurst; and    -   Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA, also referred to as 3GPP Generic        Access Network, or GAN standard).

The Cellular Wide Area radio communication technology family may also beconsidered as a Wireless Wide Area Network (Wireless WAN) radiocommunication technology family, which may include e.g. (computer)networks that cover a broad area (i.e., any network whose communicationslinks cross metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries) and mayinclude e.g. GPRS, CDMA2000 (Code division multiple access 2000), GSM,CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data), Mobitex, 3G (Third Generation), CSD(Circuit Switched Data), HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data), UMTS(3G) (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (Third Generation)),W-CDMA (UMTS) (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (Universal MobileTelecommunications System)), HSPA (High Speed Packet Access), HSDPA(High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink PacketAccess), HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access Plus), UMTS-TDD (UniversalMobile Telecommunications System-Time-Division Duplex), TD-CDMA (TimeDivision-Code Division Multiple Access), TD-CDMA (TimeDivision-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), FOMA (Freedom ofMultimedia Access), 3GPP Rel. 8 (Pre-4G) (3rd Generation PartnershipProject Release 8 (Pre-4th Generation)), UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial RadioAccess), E-UTRA (Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access), LTE Advanced(4G) (Long Term Evolution Advanced (4th Generation)), cdmaOne (2G),CDMA2000 (3G) (Code division multiple access 2000(Third generation)),EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only), AMPS (1G)(Advanced Mobile Phone System (1st Generation)), TACS/ETACS (TotalAccess Communication System/Extended Total Access Communication System),D-AMPS (2G) (Digital AMPS (2nd Generation)), PTT (Push-to-talk), MTS(Mobile Telephone System), IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone System), AMTS(Advanced Mobile Telephone System), OLT (Norwegian for OffentligLandmobil Telefoni, Public Land Mobile Telephony), MTD (Swedishabbreviation for Mobiltelefonisystem D, or Mobile telephony system D),Autotel/PALM (Public Automated Land Mobile), ARP (Finnish forAutoradiopuhelin, “car radio phone”), NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony),Hicap (High capacity version of NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone)),CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data), Mobitex, DataTAC, iDEN (IntegratedDigital Enhanced Network), PDC (Personal Digital Cellular), CSD (CircuitSwitched Data), PHS (Personal Handy-phone System), WiDEN (WidebandIntegrated Digital Enhanced Network), iBurst, Unlicensed Mobile Access(UMA, also referred to as 3GPP Generic Access Network, or GAN standard).

In various embodiments, the radio communication device 700 may furtherinclude a further receiver 706 coupled to the radio communicationprotocol controller 702 such that the receiver characteristics of thefurther receiver 706 may be controlled by the radio communicationprotocol controller 702.

In an embodiment, the radio communication protocol controller 702 may beconfigured to provide at least one of the following radio communicationprotocols of the at least one radio communication technology of the atleast one radio communication technology family:

-   -   a physical radio communication protocol layer radio        communication protocol;    -   a medium access control (MAC) radio communication protocol layer        radio communication protocol; and    -   a network radio communication protocol layer radio communication        protocol.

In an embodiment, the cognitive pilot channel receiver 602 may beconfigured to receive at least a portion of the at least one radiocommunication protocol of the at least one radio communicationtechnology of the at least one radio communication technology family(together with or separate from the pilot information).

In various embodiments, the radio communication device 700 may furtherinclude a first memory 708 configured to store program code 710implementing at least a portion of the at least one radio communicationprotocol of the at least one radio communication technology of the atleast one radio communication technology family.

In various embodiments, the radio communication device 700 may furtherinclude a working memory 712 coupled to the radio communication protocolcontroller 702, wherein the working memory 712 stores the program code714 the radio communication protocol controller 702 uses to provide atleast one radio communication protocol of the at least one radiocommunication technology of the at least one radio communicationtechnology family based on the received cognitive pilot channelinformation.

The radio communication protocol controller 702 may be configured toload the required portion of the program code 714 of the at least oneradio communication protocol of the at least one radio communicationtechnology of the at least one radio communication technology familyfrom the first memory 708 into the working memory 712.

In various embodiments, the radio communication device 700 may furtherinclude a receiver controller 716 configured to control the cognitivepilot channel receiver 602 (or the further receiver 706 in case of aV-CPC) such that only predefined pilot information is forwarded to theradio communication protocol controller 702.

In an embodiment, the predefined cognitive pilot channel information mayinclude cognitive pilot channel information of at least one predefinedradio communication technology of at least one radio communicationtechnology family.

In various embodiments, the radio communication device 700 may furtherinclude a radio scanner 718 configured to scan for radio communicationsignals other than the signals received by the cognitive pilot channelreceiver.

FIG. 8 shows a flow diagram 800 illustrating a method for controlling amobile radio communication device in accordance with an embodiment.

In various embodiments, the method may include, in 802, receivingcognitive pilot channel information via a predefined physical radiochannel. The method may further include, in 804, determining as towhether a predefined receiving criterion of the receiving of radiosignals is fulfilled, and, in 806, selectively activating a cognitivepilot channel receiver based on whether the predefined receivingcriterion of the receiving of radio signals is fulfilled or not.

In an implementation, determining as to whether a predefined receivingcriterion of the receiving of radio signals is fulfilled may includedetermining as to whether a predefined receiving criterion relating tothe receiving quality of the received radio signals is fulfilled.Furthermore, the selective activating of the cognitive pilot channelreceiver may include activating the cognitive pilot channel receiverbased on whether the receiving quality of the received radio signals islower than a predefined receiving quality threshold (and the V-CPC isnot activated or not available, in other words, in this case it mayprovided to activate the components for receiving and evaluating theinformation contained in the physical cognitive pilot channel, whereasin case the V-CPC is available, it may be sufficient to evaluate theinformation contained in the V-CPC).

In various embodiments, the method may further include providing atleast one radio communication protocol of at least one radiocommunication technology of at least one radio communication technologyfamily selected from a plurality of different radio communicationtechnology families.

In various embodiments, the method may further include decoding thereceived cognitive pilot channel information.

In various embodiments, the decoding may be carried out by a decodercomprising at least one radio baseband circuit configured to decode thereceived pilot information (which may be implemented on the same chip(e.g. in the same processor, e.g. in the same microprocessor) as theradio communication protocol controller or on a separate chip).

The decoding may include one of the following processes:

-   -   demodulating the received physical channel signal; and    -   extracting the pilot information from the received physical        channel signal.

In various embodiments, the predefined physical channel may be aCognitive Pilot Channel.

In various embodiments, the predefined physical channel may be anon-cognitive physical channel, and the pilot information may bereceived via a Virtual Cognitive Pilot Channel (which may be decoded inhigher radio communication layers such as e.g. a network communicationlayer or an application communication layer).

In various embodiments, the at least one radio communication technologyfamily may include at least one of the following radio communicationtechnology families:

-   -   a Short Range radio communication technology family;    -   a Metropolitan Area System radio communication technology        family; and    -   a Cellular Wide Area radio communication technology family.

In various embodiments, the Short Range radio communication technologyfamily may include at least one of the following radio communicationtechnologies:

-   -   a Bluetooth radio communication technology;    -   an Ultra Wide Band (UWB) radio communication technology;    -   a Wireless Local Area Network radio communication technology        (e.g. according to an IEEE 802.11 (e.g. IEEE 802.11n) radio        communication standard);    -   IrDA (Infrared Data Association);    -   Z-Wave;    -   ZigBee;    -   HiperLAN/2 (HIgh PErformance Radio LAN; an alternative ATM-like        5 GHz standardized technology);    -   IEEE 802.11a (5 GHz);    -   IEEE 802.11g (2.4 GHz); and    -   IEEE 802.11VHT (VHT=Very High Throughput).

Furthermore, the Short Range radio communication technology family maybe divided into the following Short Range radio communication technologysub-families:

-   -   a personal area networks (Wireless PANs) radio communication        sub-family, which may include e.g. IrDA (Infrared Data        Association), Bluetooth, UWB, Z-Wave and ZigBee; and    -   a wireless local area networks (W-LANs) radio communication        sub-family, which may include e.g. HiperLAN/2 (HIgh PErformance        Radio LAN; an alternative ATM-like 5 GHz standardized        technology), IEEE 802.11a (5 GHz), IEEE 802.11g (2.4 GHz), IEEE        802.11n, IEEE 802.11VHT (VHT=Very High Throughput).

In various embodiments, the Metropolitan Area System radio communicationtechnology family may include at least one of the following radiocommunication technologies:

-   -   a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) (e.g.        according to an IEEE 802.16 radio communication standard, e.g.        WiMax fixed radio communication standard or WiMax mobile radio        communication standard);    -   WiPro;    -   HiperMAN (High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network); and    -   IEEE 802.16m Advanced Air Interface.

Furthermore, the Metropolitan Area System radio communication technologyfamily may be divided into the following Metropolitan Area System radiocommunication technology sub-families:

-   -   a Wireless campus area networks (W-CANs) radio communication        sub-family, which may be considered one form of a metropolitan        area network, specific to an academic setting, and which may        include e.g. WiMAX, WiPro, HiperMAN (High Performance Radio        Metropolitan Area Network), or IEEE 802.16m Advanced Air        Interface; and    -   a Wireless metropolitan area networks (W-MANs) radio        communication sub-family, which may be limited to a room,        building, campus or specific metropolitan area (e.g., a city)        respectively, and which may include e.g. WiMAX, WiPro, HiperMAN        (High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network), or IEEE        802.16m Advanced Air Interface.

In various embodiments, the Cellular Wide Area radio communicationtechnology family may include at least one of the following radiocommunication technologies:

-   -   a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) radio        communication technology;    -   a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) radio communication        technology;    -   an Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) radio        communication technology; and    -   a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) radio        communication technology (e.g. UMTS (Universal Mobile        Telecommunications System), FOMA (Freedom of Multimedia Access),        3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution), 3GPP LTE Advanced (Long Term        Evolution Advanced));    -   CDMA2000 (Code division multiple access 2000);    -   CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data);    -   Mobitex;    -   3G (Third Generation);    -   CSD (Circuit Switched Data);    -   HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data);    -   UMTS (3G) (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (Third        Generation));    -   W-CDMA (UMTS) (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (Universal        Mobile Telecommunications System));    -   HSPA (High Speed Packet Access);    -   HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access);    -   HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access);    -   HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access Plus);    -   UMTS-TDD (Universal Mobile Telecommunications        System-Time-Division Duplex);    -   TD-CDMA (Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access);    -   TD-CDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple        Access);    -   3GPP Rel. 8 (Pre-4G) (3rd Generation Partnership Project        Release. 8 (Pre-4th Generation));    -   UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access);    -   E-UTRA (Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access);    -   LTE Advanced (4G) (Long Term Evolution Advanced (4th        Generation));    -   cdmaOne (2G);    -   CDMA2000 (3G) (Code division multiple access 2000(Third        generation));    -   EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only);    -   AMPS (1G) (Advanced Mobile Phone System (1st Generation));    -   TACS/ETACS (Total Access Communication System/Extended Total        Access Communication System);    -   D-AMPS (2G) (Digital AMPS (2nd Generation));    -   PTT (Push-to-talk);    -   MTS (Mobile Telephone System);    -   IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone System);    -   AMTS (Advanced Mobile Telephone System);    -   OLT (Norwegian for Offentlig Landmobil Telefoni, Public Land        Mobile Telephony);    -   MTD (Swedish abbreviation for Mobiltelefonisystem D, or Mobile        telephony system D);    -   Autotel/PALM (Public Automated Land Mobile);    -   ARP (Finnish for Autoradiopuhelin, “car radio phone”);    -   NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony);    -   Hicap (High capacity version of NTT (Nippon Telegraph and        Telephone));    -   CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data);    -   DataTAC;    -   iDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network);    -   PDC (Personal Digital Cellular);    -   PHS (Personal Handy-phone System);    -   WiDEN (Wideband Integrated Digital Enhanced Network);    -   iBurst; and    -   Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA, also referred to as 3GPP Generic        Access Network, or GAN standard).

The Cellular Wide Area radio communication technology family may also beconsidered as a Wireless Wide Area Network (Wireless WAN) radiocommunication technology family, which may include e.g. (computer)networks that cover a broad area (i.e., any network whose communicationslinks cross metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries) and mayinclude e.g. GPRS, CDMA2000 (Code division multiple access 2000), GSM,CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data), Mobitex, 3G (Third Generation), CSD(Circuit Switched Data), HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data), UMTS(3G) (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (Third Generation)),W-CDMA (UMTS) (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (Universal MobileTelecommunications System)), HSPA (High Speed Packet Access), HSDPA(High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink PacketAccess), HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access Plus), UMTS-TDD (UniversalMobile Telecommunications System-Time-Division Duplex), TD-CDMA (TimeDivision-Code Division Multiple Access), TD-CDMA (TimeDivision-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), FOMA (Freedom ofMultimedia Access), 3GPP Rel. 8 (Pre-4G) (3rd Generation PartnershipProject Release 8 (Pre-4th Generation)), UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial RadioAccess), E-UTRA (Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access), LTE Advanced(4G) (Long Term Evolution Advanced (4th Generation)), cdmaOne (2G),CDMA2000 (3G) (Code division multiple access 2000(Third generation)),EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only), AMPS (1G)(Advanced Mobile Phone System (1st Generation)), TACS/ETACS (TotalAccess Communication System/Extended Total Access Communication System),D-AMPS (2G) (Digital AMPS (2nd Generation)), PTT (Push-to-talk), MTS(Mobile Telephone System), IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone System), AMTS(Advanced Mobile Telephone System), OLT (Norwegian for OffentligLandmobil Telefoni, Public Land Mobile Telephony), MTD (Swedishabbreviation for Mobiltelefonisystem D, or Mobile telephony system D),Autotel/PALM (Public Automated Land Mobile), ARP (Finnish forAutoradiopuhelin, “car radio phone”), NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony),Hicap (High capacity version of NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone)),CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data), Mobitex, DataTAC, iDEN (IntegratedDigital Enhanced Network), PDC (Personal Digital Cellular), CSD (CircuitSwitched Data), PHS (Personal Handy-phone System), WiDEN (WidebandIntegrated Digital Enhanced Network), iBurst, Unlicensed Mobile Access(UMA, also referred to as 3GPP Generic Access Network, or GAN standard).

In various embodiments, the method may further include controllingreceiver characteristics of a further receiver coupled to a radiocommunication protocol controller by means of the radio communicationprotocol controller.

In various embodiments, a radio communication protocol controller mayprovide at least one radio communication protocol of the at least oneradio communication technology of at least one of the following radiocommunication technology families:

-   -   a physical radio communication protocol layer radio        communication protocol;    -   a medium access control (MAC) radio communication protocol layer        radio communication protocol; and    -   a network radio communication protocol layer radio communication        protocol.

In various embodiments, the cognitive pilot channel receiver may receiveat least a portion of the at least one radio communication protocol ofthe at least one radio communication technology of the at least oneradio communication technology family (together with or separate fromthe pilot information).

In various embodiments, the method may further include storing programcode implementing at least a portion of the at least one radiocommunication protocol of the at least one radio communicationtechnology of the at least one radio communication technology family ina first memory.

In various embodiments, the method may further include storing programcode a radio communication protocol controller uses to provide at leastone radio communication protocol of the at least one radio communicationtechnology of the at least one radio communication technology familybased on the received cognitive pilot channel information in a workingmemory coupled to the radio communication protocol controller.

In various embodiments, the radio communication protocol controller mayload the required portion of the program code of the at least one radiocommunication protocol of the at least one radio communicationtechnology of the at least one radio communication technology familyfrom the first memory into the working memory.

In various embodiments, the method may further include controlling thecognitive pilot channel receiver such that only predefined pilotinformation is forwarded to a radio communication protocol controller.

In various embodiments, the predefined cognitive pilot channelinformation may include cognitive pilot channel information of at leastone predefined radio communication technology of at least one otherradio communication technology family.

In various embodiments, the method may further include radio scanningfor radio communication signals other than the signals received by thecognitive pilot channel receiver.

FIG. 9 shows a radio communication device 900 in accordance with yetanother embodiment. As shown in FIG. 9, the radio communication device900 may include a cognitive pilot channel receiver 902 (in analternative embodiment, a cognitive pilot channel transceiver 902), anda cognitive pilot channel decoder 904 coupled with the cognitive pilotchannel receiver 902. The radio communication device 900 may furtherinclude at least one CPC antenna 906 coupled to the cognitive pilotchannel receiver 902 and configured to receive CPC signals. The CPCsignals may be received via the at least one CPC antenna 906 and thecognitive pilot channel receiver 902 and the received CPC signals maye.g. be demodulated and parsed to extract the context information of thereceived CPC signals (in general, the received CPC signals may bedecoded) by the cognitive pilot channel decoder 904. In other words, invarious embodiments, the CPC decoder 904 may contain all base-bandblocks related to the decoding of the physical dedicated CPC. By way ofexample, this includes the demodulation of the received narrow-band CPCsignal, the extraction of the context-information, etc.

The radio communication device 900 may further include a furthertransceiver 908. Furthermore, a plurality of transmit/receive antennas910 may be provided coupled to the further transceiver 908 andconfigured to receive radio signals in accordance with various settableradio communication technologies of various radio communicationtechnology families. The parameters for transmitting/receiving signalsvia the plurality of transmit/receive antennas 910 and the furthertransceiver 908 as well as the radio communication protocols to berespectively used may be controlled by an also provided processor 912,e.g. a programmable processor such as e.g. a microprocessor, which maybe implemented as an SDR processor 912. As shown in FIG. 9, the SDRprocessor 912 may additionally include a V-CPC decoder. The V-CPC, maybe mapped onto any Radio Access Technology typically used for usefuldata exchange, such as Cellular Wide Area radio communication systems(e.g., 3GPP LTE, etc.), Metropolitan Area radio communication systems(e.g., WiMAX), Short Range radio communication systems (e.g., WiFi),etc. Thus, in various embodiments, it is assumed that the SDR processor912 is performing the channel demodulation and decoding in any suitablemanner at higher communication protocol layers than the physical layerand no additional base-band logic is required. The only V-CPC relatedtask to be performed within the SDR processor 912 may be to find andextract V-CPC from the current received frame structure of therespective communication protocol layer.

Furthermore, optionally, the radio communication device 900 may furtherinclude a user interface 914, e.g. a graphical user interface module914, configured to provide a user interface, e.g. a graphical userinterface for a user of the radio communication device 900. The userinterface 914 may include, but is not limited to a keyboard, a display,a touchscreen, a microphone, a loudspeaker, etc.

In various embodiments, one or more switches 916, 918 may be providedconfigured to (depending on its switching state) provide electricalpower to the cognitive pilot channel receiver 902 or the furthertransceiver 908. Furthermore, the radio communication device 900 mayfurther include a power supply 920, e.g. a battery, and a power controllogic 922. The power supply 920 may be coupled between the e.g. twoswitches 916, 918 and the cognitive pilot channel receiver 902 and thefurther transceiver 908, respectively. The power control logic 922 iscoupled to the e.g. two switches 916, 918 to control the switchingthereof.

By way of example, as shown in FIG. 9, in case the first switch 916(which is electrically coupled (e.g. by means of first energy lines 924)between the cognitive pilot channel receiver 902 and the power supply920) is closed under control of the power control logic 922, thecognitive pilot channel receiver 902 is provided with electrical powerfrom the power supply 920 and in case the first switch 916 is openedunder control of the power control logic 922, the cognitive pilotchannel receiver 902 is separated (isolated) from the power supply 920.In an embodiment, the first switch 916 may also be electrically coupledbetween the cognitive pilot channel decoder 904 and the power supply920, so that also the cognitive pilot channel decoder 904 may beselectively provided with electrical power or isolated from theelectrical power by the first switch 916.

Furthermore, in case the second switch 918 (which is electricallycoupled (e.g. by means of second energy lines 926) between the furthertransceiver 908 and the power supply 920) is closed under control of thepower control logic 922, the further transceiver 908 is provided withelectrical power from the power supply 920 and in case the second switch918 is opened under control of the power control logic 922, the furthertransceiver 908 is separated (isolated) from the power supply 920. In anembodiment, the second switch 918 may also be electrically coupledbetween the SDR processor 912 and the power supply 920, so that also theSDR processor 912 may be selectively provided with electrical power orisolated from the electrical power by the second switch 918.Furthermore, the second switch 918 may also be electrically coupledbetween the user interface 914 and the power supply 920, so that alsothe user interface 914 may be selectively provided with electrical poweror isolated from the electrical power by the second switch 918.

In FIG. 9, there are also shown data connections 928 representingconnections between respective components of the radio communicationdevice 900 for data transfer. Arrows at a respective end of a dataconnection 928 represents the data flow direction that is provided forthe data flow between the respectively connected components.

In operation, after having received and decoded a CPC signal, the radiocommunication device 900 (more precisely the power control logic 922)may selectively energize or de-energize one or more components of theradio communication device 900, thereby saving energy for the operationof the radio communication device 900. By way of example, during theoperation of waiting for or receiving the CPC signals, the cognitivepilot channel receiver 902 and the cognitive pilot channel decoder 904may be activated, and after having received and decoded the CPC signalthe SDR processor 912 and the further transceiver 908 may also beactivated, and after having selected the radio communication technologyto be used for receiving/transmitting data from then onwards, the SDRprocessor 912 and the further transceiver 908 may be configured (e.g.programmed using a corresponding executable program code implementingthe radio communication protocol to be used) accordingly and, during thereceiving/transmission of data/signals via the further transceiver 908and the SDR processor 912, these components may still be energized andthe cognitive pilot channel receiver 902 and the cognitive pilot channeldecoder 904 may be de-activated. In an embodiment, the SDR processor 912and the further transceiver 908 may be de-activated in the beginning ofthe receiving process.

FIG. 10 shows a radio communication device 1000 in accordance with yetanother embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 10, the cognitive pilot channel decoder 1004 may beimplemented as part of the SDR Processor 1002 (reference number 1006refers to a process interface between the process implementing thecognitive pilot channel decoder 1004 and the remaining processes of theSDR Processor 1002). In this case, it is provided that power may beinterrupted for parts of the SDR processor 1002, for example such thatthe cognitive pilot channel decoder 1004 can be active while the rest ofthe SDR processor 1002 is shut down and vice versa.

Since the cognitive pilot channel reception unit (e.g. the cognitivepilot channel receiver 902) is supposed to address a fixed and verynarrow-band dedicated signal transmission at very low data rate, it isprovided in various embodiments to implement a corresponding optimizedcircuit block. Alternatively, it would be possible to use thereconfigurable transceiver and SDR processor 1002—however, the rathersmall size of the CPC implementation and the very low power consumptionof a corresponding block motivates the first choice. In variousembodiments, it may be provided that the program code used to implementthe CPC decoder 1004 is only loaded into the SDR processor 1002 as longas the CPC decoding is provided.

The rest of the radio communication device 1000 of FIG. 10 is similar tothe radio communication device 900 of FIG. 9.

FIG. 11 shows a flow diagram 1100 illustrating a method for controllinga mobile radio communication device in accordance with an embodiment. Inmore detail, FIG. 11 shows a flow diagram 1100 illustrating a decisionprocess in selecting an air interface and recovery of contextinformation.

As shown in FIG. 11, in accordance with one embodiment of a datareceiving process, in 1102, the mobile radio communication terminaldevice (such as the mobile radio communication terminal device 218, 220,(e.g. implemented as a User Equipment (UE))) switches on without anyknowledge about any available air interfaces and associated Radio AccessTechnologies and protocols. In various embodiments, the power controllogic (e.g. the power control logic 922) switches off e.g. thereconfigurable transceiver (e.g. the further transceiver 908), the SDRprocessor 912 and/or the user interface 914. The cognitive pilot channelreceiver 902 (e.g. the cognitive pilot channel transceiver 902) and thecognitive pilot channel decoder 904 are switched on.

Next, in 1104, the cognitive pilot channel receiver 902 checks whether aCPC signal is available.

If the cognitive pilot channel receiver 902 determines that no CPCsignal is available in 1104, in 1106, the power control logic 920switches again on the reconfigurable (further) transceiver 908, the SDRprocessor 912 and the user interface 914 and a standard scanning processfor scanning for available radio signals may be performed in 1108,thereby scanning a plurality of frequency bands to try to receive radiosignals.

If the cognitive pilot channel receiver 902 determines in 1104 that aCPC signal is available, the power control logic 920 may switch on atleast the SDR processor 912 and the cognitive pilot channel decoder 902communicates the available radio communication systems (such asavailable cellular wide area radio communication systems, metropolitanarea radio communication systems and/or short range radio communicationsystems) to the SDR processor 912. In an implementation, in 1110, themobile radio communication terminal device (such as e.g. the UE)activates the dedicated physical cognitive pilot channel relatedreceiver (such as e.g. the cognitive pilot channel receiver 902) andcognitive pilot channel decoder 904 building blocks. The building blocksrelated to the exchange of useful data (e.g. the SDR-processor 912parts, the further transceiver 908, etc.) may be switched off.

Furthermore, in 1112, the mobile radio communication terminal device(such as e.g. the UE) may recover context information from the receiveddedicated physical cognitive pilot channel.

Then, in 1114, the mobile radio communication terminal device (such ase.g. the UE) may switch the SDR processor 912 and the related (further)transceiver 908 on and may transfer context information to the SDRprocessor 912.

Furthermore, in 1116, the power control logic 920 may switch off thecognitive pilot channel receiver 902 and the cognitive pilot channeldecoder 904.

In an embodiment, in 1118 (which is the process being carried out afterthe process 1116 or after having completed process 1108), the SDRprocessor 912 chooses a preferred radio communication system among theavailable radio communication systems communicated by the cognitivepilot channel decoder 904. The choice may depend on constraints that areimposed by certain policies, e.g. policies of the service providers,policies of the user terminal or policies of user preferences. Anadditional optional scanning process may be started in order to identifypotentially available radio communication systems that were notcommunicated by the cognitive pilot channel decoder 904. Once the SDRprocessor 912 has chosen a preferred radio communication system, thefurther transceiver 908 may be re-configured accordingly. By way ofexample, in 1118, the mobile radio communication terminal device (suchas e.g. the UE) may select (among the available air interfaces, in otherwords, among the available radio communication technologies of thevarious radio communication families) the one which allows it to obtaine.g. the required minimum QoS (Quality of Service, i.e. the requiredminimum data rate, the required minimum latency, etc.) at e.g. a minimumcost (in terms of power consumption, price to pay for the communication,etc.).

Then, in 1120, the mobile radio communication terminal device (such ase.g. the WE) may exchange data via the selected air interface, in otherwords, in accordance with the selected radio communication technology ofthe selected radio communication technology family. By way of example,the data reception and/or data transmission may be performed using thepreferred radio communication system.

If, e.g. in 1122, the SDR processor 912 finds out that a switch to adifferent radio communication standard (in other words, to a differentradio communication technology of the same or of a different radiocommunication technology family) is required or an update of the contextinformation is desirable, the radio communication system may choose toperform one of the following actions:

-   -   The SDR processor 912 may recover the (updated) context        information from a V-CPC, i.e. a CPC that is transported via the        air interface to which the mobile radio communication terminal        device (such as e.g. the UE) is currently connected to. If the        mobile radio communication terminal device (such as e.g. the UE)        is connected to multiple air interfaces, the V-CPC may be        transported on any one of the available links.    -   The SDR processor 912 reactivates the cognitive pilot channel        receiver 902 and cognitive pilot channel decoder 904 in order to        update the information on available radio communication systems        via the dedicated physical cognitive pilot channel.

In an implementation, in case that it has been determined in 1122, thatan update of context information is required, it is determined in 1124,as to whether a V-CPC is available. In case no V-CPC is available, theprocess continues in 1104, where it is determined as to whether adedicated CPC is available. However, in case it has been determined in1124 that a V-CPC is available, then, in 1126, the updated contextinformation may be recovered based on the V-CPC that is contained in thecurrent air-interface frame structure. Then, the process continues in1118.

Furthermore, in an alternative embodiment in a scenario where only theV-CPC is present (and no dedicated physical CPC), the only ways ofobtaining context information may include the scanning of available airinterfaces and the access to a V-CPC. In this context, the process stepsrelated to the dedicated physical CPC indicated above may be omitted.

Various embodiments are related to the implementation of CPC relatedbuilding blocks in a mobile radio communication terminal device (such ase.g. a UE) and the related operational processes, such as e.g.:

-   -   The implementation of CPC-related building blocks as described        in the various embodiments described above with reference to        FIG. 9, with the CPC decoder 904 being a stand-alone building        block.    -   The implementation of CPC-related building blocks as described        in the various embodiments described above with reference to        FIG. 10, with the CPC decoder 1004 being integrated into the SDR        processor 1002. SDR resources may be assigned to the CPC        decoding on a per-need basis.

In various embodiments, a large number of mobile radio cells that areserved by various air interfaces (such as cellular wide area radiocommunication systems, metropolitan radio communication systems andshort range radio communication systems) are also covered by a dedicatedphysical pilot channel broadcasting context information. Such a scenariois illustrated in FIG. 1. Then, a user mobile radio communicationterminal device based on the implementation architecture given e.g. inFIG. 9 (or alternatively, the one given in FIG. 10) accesses therespective radio communication system based on the following processes:

-   -   The mobile radio communication terminal device (such as e.g. the        UE) activates the CPC related receiver (e.g. the cognitive pilot        channel receiver 902) and decoder (e.g. the cognitive pilot        channel decoder 904) blocks and recovers the context        information. The SDR-related transceiver (e.g. the further        transceiver 908) and the SDR processor 912 may be switched off        in order to save power.    -   The mobile radio communication terminal device (such as e.g. the        UE) may switch on the SDR processor 912 and the corresponding        further transceiver 908 and may transfer the context information        to the SDR processor 912.    -   The mobile radio communication terminal device (such as e.g. the        UE) may switch off the CPC related receiver (e.g. the cognitive        pilot channel receiver 902) and decoder (e.g. the cognitive        pilot channel decoder 904) blocks.    -   Based on the context information, the mobile radio communication        terminal device (such as e.g. the UE) may select one air        interface among the available ones. In an embodiment, the mobile        radio communication terminal device (such as e.g. the UE) may        select the air interface that allows it to obtain the required        minimum QoS (Quality of Service, i.e. the required minimum data        rate, the required minimum latency, etc.) at a minimum cost (in        terms of power consumption, price to pay for the communication,        etc.). The mobile radio communication terminal device (such as        e.g. the UE) may start communicating via the selected air        interface.    -   If the mobile radio communication terminal device (such as e.g.        the UE) decides to recover (updated) context information, it may        connect to a V-CPC via the currently active air interface        connection. If such a V-CPC is not available, the CPC-related        receiver (e.g. the cognitive pilot channel receiver 902) and        decoder (e.g. the cognitive pilot channel decoder 904) blocks        may be switched on again in order to recover the context        information and may be switched off again as soon as the        information is available to the SDR processor 912. If possible,        the SDR processor 912 and the related further transceiver 908        may be switched off during this process.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described withreference to specific embodiments, it should be understood by thoseskilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention asdefined by the appended claims. The scope of the invention is thusindicated by the appended claims and all changes which come within themeaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended tobe embraced.

What is claimed is:
 1. A mobile radio communication device, comprising:a receiver configured to receive radio pilot information via apredefined physical radio channel according to a radio communicationtechnology family, wherein the radio pilot information comprisesavailability information about the availability of at least one radiocommunication technology of at least one other radio communicationtechnology family; a radio communication protocol controller configuredto provide at least one radio communication protocol of the at least oneradio communication technology of the at least one other radiocommunication technology family based on the received pilot information.2. The mobile radio communication device of claim 1, wherein the radiocommunication protocol controller comprises a programmable controller.3. The mobile radio communication device of claim 1, further comprising:a decoder configured to decode the received pilot information.
 4. Themobile radio communication device of claim 3, wherein the decodercomprises at least one radio baseband circuit configured to decode thereceived pilot information.
 5. The mobile radio communication device ofclaim 1, wherein the predefined physical channel is a Cognitive PilotChannel.
 6. The mobile radio communication device of claim 1, whereinthe predefined physical channel is a non-cognitive physical channel; andwherein the pilot information is received via a Virtual Cognitive PilotChannel.
 7. The mobile radio communication device of claim 1, wherein atleast one of the at least one radio communication technology family andthe at least one other radio communication technology family comprisesat least one radio communication technology family selected from a groupof radio communication technology families consisting of Short Rangeradio communication technology family; Metropolitan Area System radiocommunication technology family; Cellular Wide Area radio communicationtechnology family.
 8. The mobile radio communication device of claim 1,further comprising: a power supply switch configured to provide power tothe receiver or the radio communication protocol controller.
 9. Themobile radio communication device of claim 8, further comprising: apower supply switch controller configured to control the power supplyswitch to deactivate power supply to the receiver while the radiocommunication protocol controller performs processing.
 10. The mobileradio communication device of claim 1, further comprising: a furtherreceiver coupled to the radio communication protocol controller suchthat the receiver characteristics of the further receiver may becontrolled by the radio communication protocol controller.
 11. Themobile radio communication device of claim 1, wherein the radiocommunication protocol controller is configured to provide at least oneradio communication protocol of the at least one radio communicationtechnology of the at least one other radio communication technologyfamily selected from a group of radio communication protocols consistingof: a physical radio communication protocol layer radio communicationprotocol; a medium access control radio communication protocol layerradio communication protocol; and a network radio communication protocollayer radio communication protocol.
 12. The mobile radio communicationdevice of claim 1, wherein the receiver is configured to receive atleast a portion of the at least one radio communication protocol of theat least one radio communication technology of the at least one otherradio communication technology family.
 13. The mobile radiocommunication device of claim 1, further comprising: a first memoryconfigured to store the program code implementing at least a portion ofthe at least one radio communication protocol of the at least one radiocommunication technology of the at least one other radio communicationtechnology family.
 14. The mobile radio communication device of claim 1,further comprising: a working memory coupled to the radio communicationprotocol controller, wherein the working memory stores the program codethe radio communication protocol controller uses to provide at least oneradio communication protocol of the at least one radio communicationtechnology of the at least one other radio communication technologyfamily based on the received pilot information.
 15. The mobile radiocommunication device of claim 1, further comprising: a first memoryconfigured to store the program code implementing at least a portion ofthe at least one radio communication protocol of the at least one radiocommunication technology of the at least one other radio communicationtechnology family; a working memory coupled to the radio communicationprotocol controller, wherein the working memory stores the program codethe radio communication protocol controller uses to provide at least oneradio communication protocol of the at least one radio communicationtechnology of the at least one other radio communication technologyfamily based on the received pilot information; wherein the radiocommunication protocol controller is configured to load the requiredportion of the program code of the at least one radio communicationprotocol of the at least one radio communication technology of the atleast one other radio communication technology family from the firstmemory into the working memory.
 16. The mobile radio communicationdevice of claim 1, further comprising: a receiver controller configuredto control the receiver such that only predefined pilot information isforwarded to the radio communication protocol controller.
 17. The mobileradio communication device of claim 1, further comprising: a radioscanner configured to scan for radio communication signals other thanthe signals received by the receiver.
 18. A method for controlling amobile radio communication device, comprising: receiving radio pilotinformation via a predefined physical radio channel according to a radiocommunication technology family, wherein the radio pilot informationcomprises availability information about the availability of at leastone radio communication technology of at least one other radiocommunication technology family; providing at least one radiocommunication protocol of the at least one radio communicationtechnology of the at least one other radio communication technologyfamily based on the received pilot information.
 19. A mobile radiocommunication device, comprising: a cognitive pilot channel receiverconfigured to receive cognitive pilot channel information via apredefined physical radio channel; a determination circuit configured todetermine as to whether a predefined receiving criterion of thereceiving of radio signals is fulfilled; and a cognitive pilot channelreceiver activator configured to activate the cognitive pilot channelreceiver based on whether the predefined receiving criterion of thereceiving of radio signals is fulfilled or not; wherein thedetermination circuit is configured to determine as to whether apredefined receiving criterion relating to the receiving quality of thereceived radio signals is fulfilled; and wherein the cognitive pilotchannel receiver activator is configured to activate the cognitive pilotchannel receiver based on whether the receiving quality of the receivedradio signals is lower than a predefined receiving quality threshold.20. A mobile radio communication device, comprising: a cognitive pilotchannel receiver configured to receive cognitive pilot channelinformation via a predefined physical radio channel; a determinationcircuit configured to determine as to whether a predefined receivingcriterion of the receiving of radio signals is fulfilled; a cognitivepilot channel receiver activator configured to activate the cognitivepilot channel receiver based on whether the predefined receivingcriterion of the receiving of radio signals is fulfilled or not; and aradio communication protocol controller configured to provide at leastone radio communication protocol of at least one radio communicationtechnology of at least one radio communication technology familyselected from a plurality of different radio communication technologyfamilies.
 21. The mobile radio communication device of claim 20, whereinthe radio communication protocol controller comprises a programmablecontroller.
 22. The mobile radio communication device of claim 20,wherein the at least one radio communication technology family comprisesat least one radio communication technology family selected from a groupof radio communication technology families consisting of: Short Rangeradio communication technology family; Metropolitan Area System radiocommunication technology family; Cellular Wide Area radio communicationtechnology family.